context: Despite having ample reserves of wheat and rice, which are essential staple foods, the PRC faces challenge in its food security strategy due to a lack of supplies and adequate backup reserves for corn and soybeans, the top two feed crops. This leaves the country vulnerable to price fluctuations and supply disruptions, particularly in the event of adverse weather conditions, trade tensions or other external shocks.
The PRC's grain reserves far exceed the international food security threshold of 17–18 percent of annual consumption. According to the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, the country's wheat and rice reserves can meet the national population's consumption needs for over a year.
This robust reserve system ensures that the PRC has a strong foundation for food security, announced NFSRA (National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration) on 16 October, the 44th World Food Day.
The PRC has enhanced its emergency food security capabilities. There are over 6,900 emergency processing enterprises with a daily processing capacity of 1.7 million tonnes, sufficient to meet the national demand for two days.
Major cities like Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing have a grain reserve capacity of over 15 days. These measures ensure that the state can respond effectively to emergencies and maintain social stability.
Over the past decade, the household grain storage loss rate has dropped from 8 to about 3 percent. The country has also invested in modern storage facilities, with a current standard warehouse capacity of over 700 million tonnes, up 36 percent since 2014.
Low-temperature and controlled-atmosphere storage capacities have been expanded, reducing the overall loss rate in state-owned grain warehouses to less than 1 percent.