China faces great pressure in securing its food supply in the next five years due to accelerating domestic demand, a senior official was quoted as saying in local media on Saturday. Chen Xiaohua, a vice agricultural minister, said he expected China's consumption of grains to grow by 4 billion kgs a year between 2011 to 2015.
Consumption of vegetable oil will grow by 800,000 tonnes a year over that period, while meat demand will rise by 1 million tonnes annually. "Our country is facing great pressure in the supply of agricultural products," the Shanghai Securities News quoted Chen as saying at an agricultural meeting.
To meet increasing demand, Chen said the government would try to boost food supply through policy measures including higher investment spending and subsidies for farming activities. Beijing is wary of any strains to China's food supply because that could intensify already high consumer inflation, which ran at an annual pace of 4.6 percent in December, not far off from November's 28-month high of 5.1 percent.
Food prices, accounting for about a third of the weighting of China's consumer price index, rose 7.2 percent in 2010 from a year ago. To encourage farmers to plant more grains, China's National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, has promised to continue increasing the minimum purchase prices for grains. China's grain output in 2010 was around 546.4 million tonnes, while edible oil and meat output reached 39.2 million tonnes and 77.8 million tonnes respectively, the Shanghai Securities News said.
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