Rabobank: China 2011 corn imports to at least double

China's corn imports this year will likely rise several times over last year's volume as increasing rural incomes underpin steady growth in pork consumption, a senior agriculture industry analyst with Rabobank International said. About this year’s corn import volume Chenjun Pan, a Beijing-based expert on food and agribusiness research for the bank said: "It's hard to estimate exactly, but it may be several times larger than last year," agreeing that this would mean at least double last year's volume.

Corn is an important component of feed meal for the rising hog population in China, which has sharply rebounded from the culling that followed outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and swine flu in previous years. China's hog population is likely to rise one percent this year from 453 million heads in 2010, driving historic increases in China's corn imports, she said. Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little, The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine and the International Milling Directory from Perendale Publishers