Farmers in Rongshui county in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region work in grain fields on Oct 4, 2022. (LONG LINZHI / FOR CHINA DAILY)
BEIJING – China has maintained steady development in terms of its grain production, said Cong Liang, head of the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration (NFSRA), at a press conference Thursday.
The country's staple food self-sufficiency rate is above 100 percent, Cong said at the press conference hosted by the State Council Information Office, adding that the cereal self-sufficiency rate stands above 95 percent.
China has consistently kept its farmland area above the red line of 1.8 billion mu (about 120 million hectares), and has secured a bumper harvest for the 19th year in a row, Cong said.
The country's per capita share of grain stands at about 480 kg, higher than the internationally recognized security line of 400 kg, Cong noted.
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China's annual grain purchase averaged at 400 billion kg, according to Cong.
The central government raised the minimum purchase price of wheat by 4 cents per kilogram this year to 2.34 yuan (about $0.34) to protect farmers' benefits, said Lu Jingbo, deputy head of the NFSRA at the press conference.
China's soybean output rose to a record high of more than 20 million tonnes in 2022, Lu said, well above the Chinese people's food consumption of soybeans, which stood at 13-15 million tonnes per year.