China's agricultural product market expected to remain stable in 2021, ministry

Aerial photo taken on Oct. 18, 2020 shows harvesters operating in rice fields at Jiangzhuang Village of Luanzhou City in north China's Hebei Province.(Xinhua/Mu Yu)

BEIJING, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- China's agricultural product market is expected to remain stable in 2021, as its grain production saw another bumper harvest this year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, cited by the Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily on Friday. 

Stocks of rice and wheat have maintained historically high level this year, with the recovery of pig production capacity, and stable production of livestock, poultry, fruits and vegetables, said Tang Ke, an official of the ministry. 

Driven by factors such as the holiday spending and increased production and distribution costs, the overall prices of agricultural products are expected to rise seasonally, but unlikely to see sharp increases, said Tang.

In terms of the staple food, Tang said that due to the high yields of rice and wheat for years and abundant stocks, the country's grain prices have continued to run at low levels in recent years. This year, affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, natural disasters, and capital speculation, the prices of some varieties have picked up the uptrend, but the overall situation remains basically stable, according to Tang. 

Regarding the food security, Chen Youquan, an official of the ministry, said that the country's grain production stayed relatively sound this year. The annual planting area reached 1.752 billion mu (15 mu equal one hectare), an increase of 10.56 million mu over the previous year, reversing the four consecutive years of decline. 

Chen added that total grain output reached 1,339 billion jin (about 669.5 billion kg) this year, a year-on-year increase of 11.3 billion jin, marking the sixth consecutive year with total grain output of more than 1300 billion jin (650 billion kg). 

In 2021, the country will ensure more than 1.75 billion mu of grain planting area, optimize the planting structure, and make efforts to increase the yield per unit, said Chen. (Edited by Hu Pingchao with Xinhua Silk Road, hupingchao@xinhua.org)