China News Service Client, Beijing, April 4th: With the rapid spread of the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic worldwide, some countries have begun to restrict or ban food exports, causing international food prices to rise.
Affected by this, some people in China have begun to hoard grains. Is Chinese food enough to eat? Is it necessary to hoard grain now? On the 4th, at a press conference held by the Joint Defense and Joint Control Mechanism of the State Council, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the State Grain Storage Bureau responded to related questions in a concentrated manner.
Data Map: Recently, the Russian people began to hoard rice, noodles, flour, bread, potatoes, etc. Photo by Wang Xiujun
Why would anyone go to hoard food?
In some places, there is a phenomenon of hoarding and rushing to buy food. What news has it affected?
It is understood that affected by the international epidemic, some countries have successively issued grain export bans, especially Kazakhstan, Vietnam and other countries began to announce restrictions on wheat and rice exports. According to news, Vietnam is the third largest rice exporter in the world.
Coupled with the outbreak of the desert locust disaster in some countries this year, the global food situation is now very tense. In this case, some people are hoarding and buying because they are worried about food shortages.
In addition, a few days ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said that due to the epidemic, a food crisis may occur in April and May this year.
Will the tight international food situation affect China's rations? Wei Baigang, director of the Development Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said that our country ’s annual grain imports are not large. Last year, net imports were 14.68 million tons, equivalent to less than 30 billion catties, accounting for only about 2% of China ’s cereal consumption.
"Our imports are mainly strong gluten weak wheat, Thai rice, etc. The main purpose is to adjust the demand structure to better meet people's personalized and diversified consumer needs." Wei Baigang said.
Rice infographic. Photo by China News Agency reporter Wang Xiaobin
What is the current status of China's grain?
Wei Baigang introduced that in these years, China's grain harvest has been stable for more than five years. It has been stable at more than 1.3 trillion catties for five consecutive years. Last year's grain output was 1.3277 trillion catties, a record high. The supply and demand of wheat have been balanced for many years, and the supply of rice has exceeded the demand. .
According to reports, China's per capita food occupancy has been consistently higher than the world average since 2010, and exceeded 470 kg in 2019, far higher than the international food security standard line of 400 kg per capita.
Wei Baigang said that at present, our country's food stocks are sufficient, and the stock consumption ratio is much higher than the 17% -18% level proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In particular, the two major food rations, wheat and rice stocks are roughly equivalent to the national people's annual consumption the amount.
In addition, Qin Yuyun, director of the Grain Reserve Department of the State Grain and Material Reserve Bureau, said that since the outbreak, the grain and material reserve department has strengthened market grain source dispatching and organized an orderly auction of policy grain sources, effectively protecting market demand. So far, no central reserve grain has been used, and apart from individual cities and counties, most areas have not used local grain reserves.
Data map. The picture shows acres of rice in Heilongjiang Xiangshui harvesting sickle.
Is it necessary to store food?
Wei Baigang said that in general, China's grain production is abundant and stocks are sufficient. Even when the domestic epidemic was serious in the previous stage, the grains and various types of non-staple foods on the market were all at a stable price, and the people's homes were all rice noodles. Worry-free, there is no need to buy and hoard now, "the food should still eat new food."
Pan Wenbo, director of the Department of Planting Management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said that the area of grain planting intentions this year has increased steadily. At present, the summer grains are growing well, the harvest is based, and the spring sowing is generally smooth. It should be said that grain production has already had a good Start. "The grain harvest has been abundant for many years, and the inventory is relatively abundant; the summer grain harvest is expected to be good, and the spring sowing is progressing smoothly; the ration is completely self-sufficient and the international influence is limited;
Wang Hong, director of the Department of Safe Storage and Science and Technology of the State Food and Material Reserve Bureau, said that from the perspective of responding to the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, the food emergency security system has played an active role, ensuring that the security system is supported, market fluctuations are monitored, and changes are planned. 3. It is the responsibility of guaranteeing supply and stabilizing the city.
According to Wang Hong, China has sufficient raw grain reserves. Large and medium-sized cities with concentrated populations and areas with volatile prices have established a 10 to 15-day finished grain reserve. As of now, the processing capacity of wheat and rice in national reinstatement enterprises is daily 9.62 million tons, equivalent to 1.92 billion catties. Based on the calculation of one person per catty per day, only the daily processing capacity of these emergency food processing enterprises is enough for 1.4 billion people in the country to eat more than one day. (Finishing: Wu Tao, Peng Jing and Song Yusheng) (End)