China faces food security challenge despite abundant harvest

Despite China's record high grain output this year, experts emphasised that the country's food self-sufficiency rate is decreasing as it heavily relies on imports, as reported by Voice of America (VOA).

This year, China has witnessed a record-breaking grain output, making it the 20th consecutive bumper harvest year, according to the Chinese state newspaper People's Daily.

China's annual grain output exceeded 1.39 trillion kilogrammes this year. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced that in 2024, China's overall goal for grain production is to stabilise the production of grain rations, corn and soybeans to ensure grain output remains above 1.3 trillion kilogrammes, according to China's Central Television.

However, other official data revealed that self-sufficiency in "food rations" does not equal having enough self-produced food to feed the entire population, VOA reported.

"Rations" usually only refers to rice and wheat, but broader foodstuffs such as corn, sorghum and legumes still need to be imported in large quantities.

Moreover, the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences published a report stating that by 2025, China may have a grain gap of about 130 million tons, about 10 percent of the projected 2024 output.