China's Need to Feed

     China is the world's largest largest consumer of wheat and rice - they have 1/5 of the world's population to provide for with only 8% of the world's farmland. This percentage is only becoming smaller because farmlands are giving way to rapid pace industrialization and urbanization. Inevitably, China has had to rely more on imported grains to feed its livestock and people. China's soaring economic growth with limited agricultural resources means the also growing challenge of meeting consumption. By 2022, China's grains imports will have doubled from 4% of the world's global total (297 million tons), as will have their beef imports. This benefits exporters like the U.S., Argentina, Brazil and Ukraine (for corn and wheat), Thailand, Pakistan, and Indonesia (for rice). Just this November, Brazilian Agriculture Minister Antonio Andrade announced that there was a 10 million ton surplus in corn that will hopefully be exported to China. With China's expanding economy and population, it will come to depend more heavily on foreign markets for imported food supplies.

     China is not the only nation who has to worry about food security, as do other nations with developing economies in South America and Asia. The world population will only continue to grow leading to more land development and less space to grow food and raise livestock. Although China wants to protect its farmers and has had high import tariffs on grains in the past, its quotas for low tariff imports are rising. I would think that this will only continue in the future as China's demands for food are increasing and their meat consumption rates are rising. The effects industrialization is having on what were traditional farmlands is bleak, and perhaps China should look at food production efficiency and greener methods of farming.

Works Cited:


Bloomberg News (2013, November 8). Brazil Seeks China Corn Imports of 10 Million Tons Amid Glut - Bloomberg. Retrieved November 24, 2013, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-08/brazil-seeks-china-corn-imports-of-10-million-tons-amid-glut-1-.html

China’s Grain Imports Seen Surging as Global Crop Prices Decline - Bloomberg. (2013, July 4).
Retrieved November 24, 2013, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-05/china-s-grain-imports-seen-surging-as-global-crop-prices-decline.html

 Reuters (2013, September 27). UPDATE 1-China keeps 2014 import quotas for grains, cotton at this year's levels| Reuters. Retrieved November 24, 2013, from http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/27/china-grain-imports-idUSL4N0HN2HW20130927