China Said to Plan Increase in Rapeseed Prices to Spur Planting

China, the world’s second-biggest rapeseed grower, plans to increase the amount the government pays farmers for the oilseed by more than 8 percent, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

The plan was submitted to Finance Ministry and National Development and Reform Commission officials in Beijing yesterday, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information hasn’t been made public. Farmers may get 5,000 yuan ($793) a metric ton, from 4,600 yuan last year, for rapeseed sold into state inventories, they said.

China has been stockpiling rapeseed to boost prices and encourage more production as farmers switch to more profitable crops such as wheat or move to cities to work. The proposed increase in the amount paid to farmers still need the approval of the State Council, the people said. Officials at the ministry and commission, the nation’s top economic planning agency, declined to comment when contacted by phone and fax today.

The country may import 2 million tons of rapeseed this year, 59 percent more than in 2011, Grain.gov.cn, a unit of the state-controlled China National Grain & Oils Information Center, said in a report April 24. First-quarter imports rose fourfold from a year earlier, customs data show. Canada is the world’s biggest supplier of the oilseed.

Crude rapeseed oil for September delivery rose as much as 1.1 percent to 10,732 yuan a ton on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange today, and closed at 10,692 yuan.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: William Bi in Beijing at wbi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Richard Dobson at rdobson4@bloomberg.net