China expects bumper wheat harvest despite drought: ag ministry

BEIJING: China, the world's top wheat producer, is likely to reap a bumper wheat harvest in 2011 despite drought earlier this year in most of its wheat-growing areas in the north, the agriculture ministry said.

China's winter wheat, accounting for more than 90 percent of the country's total wheat harvest, may increase for the eighth year, agriculture minister Han Changfu was cited as saying in a report posted on the ministry's web site. Han did not give any figures.

Han cited a survey as saying that expanded wheat acreage coupled with higher yields would contribute to the bumper harvest, while higher output in irrigated areas would offset lower output in drought-stricken zones.

China's northwest provinces, which were hit by drought last year and produced less, were expected to contribute more this year, Han said in the country's top wheat growing province of Henan as farmers were harvesting the crop.

A good wheat harvest is key for China in cooling expectation of higher food prices, particularly as drought continued in most of the central areas along the Yangtze River, threatening early-season rice. The 115.8 million tonne wheat harvest in 2010 accounted for about 20 percent of China's total grain harvest.

Copyright Reuters, 2011