Chinese agricultural leaders are to meet members of the UN-backed Agricultural Market Information System, created after food prices surged worldwide in 2008, to discuss access to data on Chinese grain stockpiles, says AgriMoney. The news site says stockpiles are “one of the largest statistical mysteries in world markets and seen as adding structural uncertainty to world prices.” While China provides information about crop production and usage, it treats its stockpile data as a matter of national security. An FAO economist taking part in the initiative told AgriMoney that he hoped for progress by the end of this year on access to grain-stocks data. China is somewhat more forthcoming on figures for its cotton and soybean stockpiles, he said.
In April, FAO raised its estimate of China’s corn stockpile by 15 percent; its estimate is well above the figures used by the USDA and the International Grains Council, says the Financial Times. Large stockpiles suggest less need by China for corn imports, which affect growers in the major exporting nations such as the United States, Brazil and Argentina. China is second to the United States as the world’s largest corn grower. The USDA projects a record Chinese crop of 228 million tonnes this year, up 6 percent from 2014.