BEIJING, CHINA — National grain storage capacity in China topped 700 million tonnes by the end of 2023, up 36% from 2014 and generally on par with the country’s annual grain production, according to an official of the country’s National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration.
Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), China has built and upgraded grain storage facilities with a total capacity exceeding 65 million tonnes, according to Zhou Guanhua, director of the administration’s safe storage and technology department, according to Science and Technology Daily.
Stack storage and open-air piles largely have been eliminated across the country, while “four-in-one” grain storage technologies that cover mechanical ventilation, fumigation, monitoring and cooling have been applied as a standard in state-owned grain warehouses, improving grain storage quality and freshness, Zhou said.
China also has been promoting green grain storage technologies in its grain warehouses, covering such areas as temperature control, internal circulation and comprehensive pest control, he said.
By the end of 2023, the total storage capacity of low-temperature and near-low-temperature grain warehouses nationwide had climbed to 200 million tonnes, and the loss rate of state-owned grain warehouses remained within a reasonable range of 1%, Zhou said.
China, the world’s biggest agricultural importer with the second-largest population at 1.4 billion people, has made reducing reliance on overseas suppliers a priority in recent years. The 14th Five-Year Plan called for annual grain production of no less than 650 million tonnes.
