China to be World’s Leading Corn Importer Even With Record Crop

By Chuck Abbott

A favorable growing season and government policies that encourage crop rotations will result in a record corn crop in China, estimated the USDA. China is second to the United States as a corn producer and will be the world’s largest corn importer for the second year in a row, according to the monthly World Agricultural Production report.

The Chinese crop, now being harvested, was forecast at 273 million tonnes, 5% larger than the previous harvest. All the same, China would import 26 million tonnes of corn, the same amount as in the just-ended 2020/21 marketing year, said the monthly WASDE report. Both reports were issued last Friday.

“Imports are unchanged for 2021/22 as the gap between China’s domestic and international corn prices is expected to persist, particularly in the feed-deficit South,” said the WASDE report. Three-fourths of the corn crop is used as livestock feed. China displaced Mexico as the top corn importer in 2020/21.

n Friday, President Trump lost his case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court over his use of the Emergency Powers Act to impose tariffs on the major trading partners of the United States. The day before, USDA released it's acreage prediction at the 102nd Agricultural Outlook Forum.