Not all of China's imported grain is used for food, but also for making non-staple foods and feed. At the very least, the production of wheat and rice, the staple foods of our people, is high enough, and the import volume of these two staple foods is very small. The largest amount of imports is soybeans and other agricultural products with small planting area and low yield.
In fact, China is the world's largest grain producer and the largest grain importer, and there is no fundamental contradiction between the two. Just like the United States produces enough grain to eat every year, it will still import corn, wheat and other grains from abroad. Unless a country is sparsely populated, it will become a real grain exporter, like Ukraine, Russia.
According to statistics, in 2021, China's total grain production was 6800 million tons, with an import volume of 1600 million tons. Of the total grain imports, 96.51 million tons were soybeans, 28.35 million tons of corn, 12.48 million tons of barley, 9.77 million tons of wheat, 6.42 million tons of sorghum, and 4.96 million tons of rice.
It can be seen that soybeans account for half of all China's imported grains. The main reason is that the area of soybean planting in China is too small, only 12.6 billion mu, and China's demand for soybeans is relatively large.
In 2021, our country consumed 11.7 billion tons, 16.4 million tons of self-produced is far from enough. Therefore, in order to meet domestic demand, only nearly 100 million tons of soybeans can be imported from abroad.
The soybeans imported by China have two main uses.
The soybeans used to press soybean oil are basically genetically modified soybeans, of which the genetically modified soybeans used to press soybean oil in 2021 are as high as 994980,000 tons, with an edible consumption of 146010,000 tons, and the consumption for sowing was 24960,000 tons.
According to China's edible oil consumption data in 2021, soybean oil accounts for about 44, rapeseed oil accounts for about 22%, peanut oil accounts for about 16%, palm oil accounts for about 8%, and the rest is accounted for by flaxseed oil.
It can be seen that soybean oil accounts for half of the consumption of our people, and the domestic soybean production is low, so it can only rely on imported genetically modified soybeans.
In addition to oil extraction, soybeans can also be used to make tofu, soy milk, bean sprouts, soybean lecithin, shortening, margarine, soybean flour, soybean protein, fermented bean curd, stinky tofu, bean paste, soy sauce, tempeh, natto, marinated soy products, fried soy products, smoked soy products, fried marinated soy products, etc.
After all, soy products are also a delicacy when they are ready, and who doesn't want to have one more dish on their table.
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These soybeans are all non-GMO soybeans, and the import volume is relatively small, and they cannot be directly used for food production and planting. Soybean meal is the residue left over from soybean oil after soybean oil is refined, and it is mainly used to make poultry feed.
It can be seen that most of the soybeans imported by China are used to press soybean oil, and the amount of real direct consumption is very small. Therefore, in grain imports, the amount directly used for food is not much, and more is used to make non-staple foods.
In 2021, the total consumption of corn in our country was 2800 million tons. Among them, there are 1800 million tons, accounting for 64%; industrial consumption was 80 million tons, accounting for 29%, and when 1.98 million tons of seeds were used, a lot of losses were lost in all links; Only 9.6 million tonnes are consumed directly as food, a proportion of only 3 percent.
There are three main uses of imported corn in China:
In fact, 100 kilograms of corn is equivalent to 135 kilograms of oats, 120 kilograms of sorghum or 150 kilograms of indica rice, and about 60% of 70% of the world's corn is used as feed. After the corn kernels are crushed, trace elements are added to make feed.
At present, many provinces in China are using ethanol gasoline, and ethanol gasoline is more fully burned than petroleum without ethanol, reducing atmospheric pollution, and the purity of corn can be produced by using more than 995% absolute ethanol.
Since the starch content in corn is between 65% and 70%, and these starches can be further catalyzed by enzymes to form glucose, glucose can be produced after a series of complex changes. In practice, 106 kg of glucose can be produced for every 100 kg of starch, which in turn produces 5088 kg of ethanol.
As for the use of corn, the most is to make it into starch, after all, the corn kernels after drying are so hard that they cannot be eaten directly as a staple food.
To sum up: although China is the largest grain importer, the staple food wheat and rice are still in their own hands, and the import volume is not so much. After all, China's population has exceeded 1.4 billion, and the limited arable land can only ensure the planting area of staple foods first, and then consider other crops. For many reasons, it seems normal to make a trade-off. As for crops with low yields, there is no better option than to import them from abroad.