Food imports to stay steady

Despite the snowstorms that devastated large swathes of farmland, and an increasing dependence on soybean imports, there will not be a significant jump in food imports, top rural policy-makers have said.

After securing grain output at around 500 million tons for four consecutive years, the country is striving for production above that level this year, Vice-Minister of Agriculture Wei Chao'an said yesterday.

The official said that soybean imports had increased by 2 million tons annually over the past few years to exceed 30 million tons in 2007, when imports of edible oil surged 25 percent year-on-year to 8.4 million tons, driving the country's farm trade deficit to a record $4.08 billion.