China’s grain trade: recent developments

Abstract

[Extract] Having examined China's grain production and consumption in earlier chapters, we turn our attention in this part to trade aspects of China's grain. We first highlight in this chapter some recent developments in China's grain trade, both domestically and internationally. Later chapters will address China's grain trade prospects and how China's grain trade will be affected by market reforms.

In this chapter, we discuss grain trade in general. It would be ideal if we could address foodgrain and feedgrain trade separately. Unfortunately, data currently available do not allow meaningful separation of foodgrain and feed graintrade. However, wherever possible, we will point out what kinds of grains are imported and exported and for what purposes.