China turns to GM corn in battle to raise output

China raised biotechnology as a key weapon in a battle to counter a corn supply squeeze, which it said would require continued curbs on industrial use of the grain.

Chen Xiaohua, vice agriculture minister, termed genetic engineering "the strategic choice of the country in future", as the country attempts to boost output to meet demand inflated in particular by a growing appetite for pork among an ever-wealthier population.

However, he highlighted that the single, domestically developed corn strain which has been granted a biosafety certificate, two years ago, had yet to become commercially available.

"We have approved one type of [genetically-modified] strain and we're testing to see if they can be applied to boost production," Mr Chen said.

Slow take-up

China has already approved biotech tomatoes, papaya, sweet peppers, petunias and poplar trees for commercial cultivation, besides cotton genetically modified for insect resistance.

However, besides cotton, which accounts for an estimated two-thirds of domestic sowings of the fibre, the varieties have proved unpopular, amid some controversy over the technology, especially for crops involved in the food chain.

For corn, the country has approved for import various foreign biotech varieties, grown from seed produced by the likes of Bayer, DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta. But Beijing has not cleared the varieties for planting.

China plants roughly the same area as the US with corn every year, but manages yields only half as big.

Imports played down

Mr Chen acknowledged that China would need to make "great efforts to balance supply and demand" in corn, of which the country is the second-ranked producer and consumer, after the US.

While the country has forecast a record corn harvest of more than 180m tonnes, demand is expected to rise to match production.

However, he played down talk of imports of US corn which has excited Chicago traders, with ideas that China has taken advantage of this month's price falls to buy US corn relatively cheaply.

"Last year China did import some corn from abroad but that was mainly due to a price differential that made corn imports attractive," Mr Chen said, citing customs data showing a 26% fall in corn imports, year on year, in the January-July period.

Instead, he highlighted the role of restrictions on industrial use of corn, which is made into sweeteners, starches and specialise products such as lysine, besides bioethanol.
"Corn consumption by industrial processors should be restricted to a reasonable level."