China’s food supplies more and more depend on importation

In last decades, for food security reason, China tried all the best to keep 95% of its food supplies by self-support. However, as many factors such as market, energy and grain prices, farmland resource and climate could affect food crops production, it is hard to continue controlling the ratio all the time in the country.

China imported over 62.5 million t food supplies (corn, wheat and soybean) in 2011, and it occupied over 10% of the total consumption in the year. In 2011, China imported soybean 52.4 million t, plant oil 6.27 million t, cotton 3.3 million t (over 50% of domestic total production), sugar over 2 million t and pork product over 2 million t, respectively. That means China’s food supplies by self-support is less than 90% and the problem of food security has become serious. As China’s food supplies more and more depend on international market, the production and price of many agricultural products, especially food prices in domestic market were fluctuated frequently in recent years.

To solve this problem, China needs to greatly increase food crops production in near future. Therefore, the great potential on better use fertilizers and farming management strategies is existed.