China food security: ‘severe challenges’ ahead as rising incomes, geopolitical turmoil strain resources

Name: Shanghai’s citywide Covid-19 lockdown spurs race to stockpile food across China
Uploaded: 2022-04-29T12:30:27.000Z
Duration: 1 min 27 s
Description: Shanghai’s citywide Covid-19 lockdown spurs race to stockpile food across China

National food output is likely to reach its lowest point at about 58.8 per cent of domestic demand by around 2030, down from 65.8 per cent in 2020

China’s food supply faces multiple challenges, including rising incomes that will drive up demand, demographic changes and geopolitical disruption

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Beijing has ramped up its focus on food security in recent years, outlining plans for higher domestic agricultural output to feed its 1.4 billion population. Photo: AFP

Orange Wang

Published: 8:30pm, 29 Apr 2022Updated: 10:11pm, 29 Apr 2022

China’s food security will face “more severe challenges” in the next decade amid a complex geopolitical environment and demographic changes, with self-sufficiency in production bottoming out in 2030, experts say.

National food output is likely to reach its lowest point at about 58.8 per cent of domestic demand by around 2030, down from 65.8 per cent in 2020 and 93.6 per cent at the beginning of the century, according to Cheng Guoqiang, a professor of agricultural economics and rural development at Renmin University in Beijing.

China’s food supply faces multiple issues, including rising incomes that will drive up demand and demographic changes, said Cheng, who is also a member of the national expert advisory committee on food security policy.

“China will face greater pressure on resources and more severe challenges in ensuring grain and food security ahead,” he told a virtual forum held at Renmin University on Wednesday.

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Shanghai’s citywide Covid-19 lockdown spurs race to stockpile food across China

Beijing has ramped up its focus on food security in recent years, outlining plans for higher domestic agricultural output to feed its 1.4 billion population, a task that has gained more urgency amid the trade war with the United States and the coronavirus pandemic.

President Xi Jinping called for a “big view of food” during the annual parliamentary sessions in March, saying there must be a secure supply of grains, meat, vegetables, fruit and seafood.

In recent months, China’s zero-Covid strategy, which relies on heavy restrictions to stamp out coronavirus cases, has cast a shadow over the spring farming season. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also added to worries about a looming global food crisis, due to disruptions of key staple crops.