BEIJING, CHINA — Increased grains plantings by China, driven by its desire to improve food security and self-sufficiency for its 1.4 billion people, helped produce a record corn crop of 288.84 million tonnes in 2023, Reuters reported, citing the National Bureau of Statistics.
Corn output rose 4% from 277.2 million tonnes in 2022, despite summer typhoons that damaged crops in some northern provinces of the world’s second-largest producer of the grain, behind only the United States.
Rice production in 2023 stood at 206.6 million tonnes, and bean output, including mostly soybeans, was at 23.84 million tonnes.
The area planted with grains reached 119 million hectares (294 million acres) in 2023, up 636,000 hectares, or 0.5%, year-on-year.
