The increasing scale of purchase for wheat in China this year is expected to drive up market prices, according to an expert.
"From the perspective of demand, the largest consumption of wheat is for staple food, or flour milling, so the consumption of flour milling is also increasing. [As of now,] the operating rate of small and medium-sized flour processing plants is nearly 33 percent, the best level in the past three years," said Han Yijun, director of the National Wheat Industry Technology System Industrial Economic Research Office.
Generally speaking, wheat is consumed in three ways: flour milling consumption, industrial consumption and feed consumption. In terms of flour milling, wheat is produced into flour and then processed into foods such as cakes and bread.
Feed consumption is used for feed breeding, and industrial consumption is mainly used for brewing alcohol and making condiments, Han explained.
Summer grain, primarily wheat, accounts for about one quarter of the annual grain production.
"The harvest of summer grain, including its price trend, actually plays a fundamental role in the price trend of grain throughout the year. The new wheat that just came to the market has seen a steady upward trend in price, setting a good start for the grain price trend throughout the year," said Han.
Over 40 percent of winter wheat crops have been harvested in major wheat growing regions across China so far, faster than the same period of last year, according to farming monitoring data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and data of satellite remote sensing by the National Satellite Meteorological Center.
Growing purchase scale in China expected to drive up wheat price
