China's north-east province of Jillian is planning to sell rice and corn stocks totalling 1.5 million tonnes in a late September tender, part of a series of auctions across the country to make room for new harvest.
The province will sell one million tonnes of corn and half a million tonnes of rice in a two-day tender between September 24 and 25, a local wholesale market said in a notice. A market official said the old rice and corn were good enough for human consumption.
Chinese provinces have begun selling off old grains to replenish silos with the fall harvest. Henna is also planning to sell half a million tonnes of wheat stocks in a tender from September 15-16.
Heilongjiang province has delayed a tender to sell half a million tonnes of wheat and 300,000 tonnes of corn originally scheduled for September 15. Domestic corn prices at major north growing areas continued to fall this week on the auction news.
Ex-granary prices for corn in Jillian fell about 20 yuan to 1,180 yuan ($142.6) per tonne.
Prices for short-grain rice edged up by about two percent in the north-east this month as demand from the consuming south kept strong, traders said.
Rice was quoted at 2,600-3,000 yuan in Guangzhou. China expects its 2004-grain output to rise six percent to 455.6 million tonnes, which includes about 125 million tonnes of corn.