China has allocated 1.6 billion yuan ($253 million) to strengthen field management for winter wheat, the country’s finance ministry said, in an effort to bolster security of food supply.
Part of the money will be used to stabilise output of winter wheat in five main production regions, including Hebei and Shandong provinces, where planting of the grain was delayed, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its website.
The central government will also allocate the money to about a dozen other production regions to prevent and control the impact of extreme weather on wheat.
China’s agriculture minister has said the country’s winter wheat crop condition is potentially the worst in history, after heavy rainfall delayed the planting of about a third of the normal wheat acreage, but added he was confident that a bumper summer grain harvest can be secured.
Meanwhile, Chicago wheat futures lost more ground on Thursday, with prices dropping to a one-week low after a widely watched US government report cut its estimate for the country’s exports.
Lower production in South America and expectations of strong demand for US supplies underpinned soybean and corn prices.
The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 5.7% at $11.33-1/2 a bushel, as of 0127 GMT, after dropping earlier in the session to its lowest since March 3 at $11.09 a bushel.
Soybeans were largely unchanged at $16.71-1/2 a bushel and corn gained 0.5% to $7.36-3/4 a bushel.
- Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell
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