China to Reduce Corn Acreage in 2016 as Stocks Soar

As China’s government comes under pressure to reduce its corn inventories, Beijing plans to cut the country’s corn acreage in 2016, according to China’s agriculture minister, Han Changfu.

At a meeting of agriculture officials, the minister announced that other coarse grains, forage grasses, beans, and corn silage for animal feed will be promoted as suitable alternative crops for production.

The four provinces in China’s northeast are responsible for about 40% of the country’s corn production, and will be the main targeted areas for the reduction. China’s policy of artificially supporting domestic corn prices has led to prices being 30% higher than on international markets, sparking not only the expansion of corn acreage in the country, but a flood of cheaper imports of corn and corn substitutes, creating an unsustainable scenario.

Analysts forecast that China will have corn stocks of more than 120 million tons, or more than eight months of consumption, before the domestic harvest beginning in October.