At the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit last week, part of the discussion turned to China’s food security and how food availability in China might affect global demand.
Experts discussed how China’s growth has led to increasing urbanization, personal wealth and therefore, changing eating habits. A rise in meat consumption means that China will need to ensure availability of soy and/or corn to provide feed for livestock.
Shenggen Fan, director general of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) analyzed the how this meat consumption trend in China, and what might be done about it:
“The government gives too much protection to urban consumers, but not to growers. Farmers have not profited from higher food prices, while much of the profit has gone to urban consumers… The government could offer subsidies to people on low incomes and pensioners and the unemployed. Keeping prices too low benefits poor people but also rich people. But low grain prices also means farmers are unwilling to grow more.”
If the supply of China’s domestically grown crops used for feed are not kept up, it is thought that China may begin to buy large quantities of corn and soy on global markers, which could drive up demand and prices.
Posted by Michael Lucivero
