China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Rural Work Conference took place in Beijing on January 25 and 26. The agenda focused on agriculture and rural areas in the year of 2022. CCP Chairman Xi Jinping said at the meeting, “The rice bowl of the Chinese people must be firmly in their own hands at all times.”
The meeting highlighted two issues: food security and no falling back into poverty on a large scale. Emphasis was put on grain production and on the supply of important agricultural products to ensure at least 650 billion kilograms of total output in 2022.
China is the largest buyer of U.S. soybeans. On December 22, the Chinese website of Japan’s Nikkei cited a projection from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that China’s reserve of corn and other major grain stocks will account for more than half of the world’s total. With a population that is less than 20 percent of the world, China’s massive hoarding of grain is quite eye-catching.
Source: People’s Daily, December 27, 2021
http://papTer.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2021-12/27/nw.D110000renmrb_20211227_1-01.htm