China says 2020 corn output barely changed from last year

BEIJING: China produced 260.67 million tonnes of corn in 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday, barely down from last year's volume despite weather damage before the harvest.

The world's No. 2 corn producer harvested 260.77 million tonnes of the grain last year.

Corn output is being closely watched amid a growing deficit in the country that has driven up prices to multi-year highs, boosting imports to record levels and fuelling purchase of other grains.

The commodity is a key raw material in animal feed for China's huge livestock sector and is also used in industrial products.

Analysts were expecting corn output to fall by up to 10 million tonnes after typhoons flattened crops in some parts of the country's northeastern corn belt, adding to supply concerns after Beijing ran down its massive state stockpiles over the last several years.

But Beijing has repeatedly sought to soothe such concerns, saying output would not be impacted.

"Although floods and typhoons in some areas had a certain impact on production, all localities have strengthened field management and actively took measures to prevent and reduce disasters," the statistics bureau said in a statement.

Some analysts, however, doubted the corn numbers.

"It seems too high. The sown area is pretty much exactly the same as last year and so is the yield. But the northeast was hit with three typhoons in a row [prior to the harvest]," said Darin Friedrichs, a senior Asia commodity analyst at StoneX.

Production of bumper crops, wheat and rice, also increased and came after Beijing doubled down on its focus on food security, urging farmers to finish spring planting on time even as it was emerging from a coronavirus-led lockdown earlier this year.

The country's wheat output came to 134.25 million tonnes, marginally up from 133.59 million tonnes last year, while rice production rose 1.1% to 211.86 million tonnes.

The area planted with rice increased more than 5%, said the statistics bureau, after the government stepped up its support for one of China's staple food crops after the pandemic began.

Output of soybeans increased 8.3% to 19.6 million tonnes.

The total grain planting area increased 0.6% to 116.8 million hectares, according to the statistics bureau.