China seen importing more rice, exports to recover

China, the world's largest rice consumer, is likely to import more rice than it exports in the coming years even though a bumper harvest this year will boost exports next year, industry officials said on Thursday.
China's rice output this year will be 182 million tonnes, up from 179 million tonnes last year, Zhou Guanhua, a deputy director at the State Grain Administration, told a rice conference in Beijing.
"Imports should be higher than exports in the next few years," he said.
Because China's consumption was five times global rice trade, it had to rely on itself for supply, the officials told the conference. Significant imports were impossible.
"Chinese can afford to import some different qualities from the international market because incomes have improved," said Yang Hong, a rice manager at the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO).
China has recently approved imports of basmati rice from Pakistan. The initial amount was 100 tonnes.
Pakistani traders had tried to teach Chinese to cook the rice differently so it would not taste the same as local rice, Mohammed Yasin, general manager of Midbrains Commodities International told Reuters.
China's rice imports jumped 196 percent in 2004 to 761,674 tonnes, of which 96 percent came from Thailand and rest from Vietnam.
China's rice exports are likely to recover to more than 1 million tonnes next year following years of decline, industry officials said. "Exports will slowly recover, but they cannot get back to 2 million tonnes all of a sudden," said Coffee's Yang.
China's 2004 net rice exports were down 65.5 percent at 896,016 tonnes. The exports mainly go to Japan, South Korea, Russia and some African countries.
Yang said the end of the year or next year after a clearer picture emerged of the domestic harvest would decide China's export amount for next year.
Beijing has limited exports since 2003, after domestic grain production fell to a decade-low that year. China exported record rice volumes in 1997 and 1998, 2.7 million tonnes and 3.7 million tonnes, respectively.
China produced rice surpluses from 1997 to 2002. Production has since fallen, with a deficit this year seen at about 10 million tonnes, to be met mainly by government stocks.