China's state trading enterprise COFCO will sign a memorandum of understanding on Thursday to buy 3 million tonnes of US wheat in the 2004/05 season, US Wheat Associates said on Wednesday.
Dawn Forsythe, spokeswoman for the export promotion group, said COFCO Vice President Yu Xubo will sign the agreement with the South Dakota Wheat Commission at the state capital.
She said a "certain quantity" of the wheat is expected to be sourced from South Dakota.
China has bought 1.06 million tonnes of US wheat for shipment in the 2004/05 marketing year beginning June 1 as of Feb. 19, according to US Agriculture Department data.
The world's most populous country has also bought 1.19 million tonnes of US wheat for shipment in the 2003/04 season ending May 31.
Late last month, another group of COFCO officials led by Chairman Zhou Mingchen toured the United States and concluded deals to buy about 900,000 tonnes of US wheat.
Confirmed sales to China in both the 2003/03 and 2004/05 seasons now total just over 3 million tonnes.
In December, China signed agreements to buy 1 million tonnes of wheat from Australia and 500,000 tonnes from Canada. Those countries and the United States are the world's top three wheat exporters.
China's rapid economic growth is fuelling consumer demand for flour used in bread and noodles, grain analysts said. Its domestic stockpiles were also falling.
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