China will push for greater self-reliance in food

Significance

President Xi Jinping last year called for "a sense of crisis about food security”. Behind such statements lies an awareness of environmental threats and natural disasters, a shrinking and ageing farm labour force, shortages of water and arable land, and food waste on an enormous scale.

Impacts

• China cannot avoid dependence on imports of animal feed as its population's demand for meat rises further.
• Beijing will make greater efforts to diversify foreign sources of feed imports.
• China is immutably locked into overseas dependence for soybeans, and potentially maize and barley, too.