In its closely watched “number one document” on rural policy, the Chinese government omitted any mention of “basic self-sufficiency” in food crops, moving away from expensive subsidies that created the world’s largest stockpiles of wheat, corn and rice, said Reuters. The deputy head of the Communist Party’s rural policy group told reporters the focus is shifting to balancing supply and demand, “improving quality and competitiveness, and enhancing agricultural sustainable development ability.”
China will maintain support prices for wheat and rice this year but officials indicated that minimum prices will be more in line with market levels in the future. China eliminated corn supports last year. China is the No. 1 market for U.S. farm exports.
The rural policy document also indicated that China will be more welcoming toward agricultural imports, said Reuters. “While last year’s document had stressed the need to diversify the source of imported foods, this year it was much more aggressive in promoting investment overseas, suggesting China will embrace imports but wants to take a share of the profits,” said the news agency, which quoted an analyst with a Beijing consulting company as saying the stance “is very significant for global trade.”