China to Eliminate Majority of Open Grain Storage by 2020
China has decided to eliminate more than 95 percent of its open air grain storage by 2020 in order to reduce waste and to modernize its infrastructure.
Last year, the country’s top grain producers produced 621 million tons of crops last year but of this total it is estimated that 100 million tons were stored outdoors.
This goal is not being considered too difficult to achieve, thanks to the recent reforms of the country’s stockpiling system leading to a lower volume of grain needing storage next year.
Between 2011 and 2015 China added 82.5 million tons of grain storage capacity – more than 300 percent higher than government targets as farmers had been prompted to sow more grain than was needed. Beijing states in its 13th five-year plan, that for the next five years the country will maintain a “reasonable” level of grain storage, however, exact numbers were not mentioned.
The government also urged its top grain enterprises to expand overseas by 2020 – a movement that state-owned COFCO has spearheaded with its acquisition of both Noble Group’s agribusiness and grain trader, Nidera.
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