China plans to reduce corn acreage

China plans to cut the corn acreage by close to 666,700 hectares in 2016, an official with the country's agricultural ministry said on Thursday, as the country comes under mounting pressure to reduce its corn stocks.

Pan Weibo, deputy director with the Department of Crop Production under the Ministry of Agriculture, said the country will promote the growing of silage corn, beans, other coarse grains and forage grass in 13 provincial areas to replace the corn acreage.

China's combined grain reserve already stands at 230 million metric tons, the largest in the world, the China Business News reported. The country's ending stock for corn during the 2015/16 market years are expected to reach 906 million tons, the report said.

Pan said the country's northeastern provincial areas will be a key area for the reduction in corn acreage.

The country plans to reduce the corn acreage by 3.3 million hectares by the end of 2020, according to a guideline issued by the Ministry of Agriculture earlier this month.

Pan estimated that the reduction in corn acreage in 2020 will help reduce the corn production by 25 million tons, and thus help further reduce the corn stocks.