China is expected to reap a record soyabean harvest of 18 million tonnes in 2004 due to expanded acreage and good weather, according to a forecast by the official grain think-tank.
"We expect the harvest this year to be a record high if there is no major weather damage later," said one analyst at the China National Grain and Oils Information Centre on Tuesday.
Soyabeans are planted in May and harvested in September.
The forecast is higher than one by the State Grain Administration last month, which put soyabean output at 17.5 million tonnes. China's soyabean acreage was up 13.5 percent year-on-year to 10 million hectares in 2004.
The State Statistical Bureau to 15.4 million tonnes revised the country's soyabean production for 2003, said the analyst.
Heilongjiang, the country's top soyabean growing province, expects its soyabean output to reach 10 million tonnes, up from last year's six million tonnes, said a provincial agriculture official.
"Acreage is large this year and the weather is more favourable," he said. Acreage in the province was up by 25 percent from 2003 to 330,000 hectares. But the analyst at the centre said the provincial forecast was higher than the centre's estimate, which sees Heilongjiang's output at eight million tonnes.