China to become a net importer of corn 'in a few years'

China will become a net importer of corn within just a few years due mainly to a steep rise in demand from industries turning it into fuel or using it for animal feed, state press said Friday.
"We believe that China will become a net importer of corn in a few years," a commerce ministry official told the China Daily newspaper on condition of anonymity. China produces most of the corn it uses but trade data suggest its purchases from overseas are rising dramatically. The nation's corn imports stood at 60,000 tonnes in the first nine months of this year, a 43-fold increase on the same period in 2005, the newspaper said.
This is still dwarfed by exports over the same period of 2.3 million tonnes but perhaps not for much longer, it suggested. Rising oil prices have encouraged many grain enterprises to establish large plants processing corn into fuel ethanol and alcohol.
"The growing capacity will drive domestic demand even higher and is likely to turn China into a net corn importer in the coming years," the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.