China Corn Glut No Barrier to Farmers as State Buys More
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Even after four years of record corn harvests left China with the world’s biggest surplus since 2002, Zhang Fengyou and millions of farmers in the northeast provinces are planting more.
That’s because they know the government will buy corn at above-market prices, stockpiling enough to supply the 28 nations of the European Union for a year. State reserves are a strategic asset for China, the world’s most-populous nation, where corn used to feed hogs, cattle and poultry surged 44 percent over the past five years as meat consumption climbed.