CRI听力:China's Floods Not to Affect Food Price

The recent heavy rains have largely alleviated the protracted drought in southern China. Some regions have suffered severe flood ever since. Will the consecutive drought and its ensuing flood decrease the grain output and lift China's food price? CRI's Wei Tong tries to find out.

The heavy rains have flooded around 13 thousand square kilometers of farmlands in southern China's Hunan, Jiangxi and Guizhou provinces. However, as Chen Youquan from Minister of Agriculture explains, the floods are not likely to affect the grain output and its market price.

"The market price is set by various factors. Although the serious drought has hit the farmlands, we have increased the farming area and selected high-yielding seeds so that the output will not be decreased. We are expecting a harvest. And the wheat output is expected to increase compared to last year."

Chen's opinion is echoed by Li Guoxiang, a senior researcher on rural development from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Li says that southern China, especially the flood-hit region in downstream of the Yangtze River, is not the main area for China's summer grain crops. And the 400 million US dollars allocated by the central government for disaster relief will also compensate for farmers' losses.

Li adds that the potential food price hiking is not caused by drought and flood but by other factors.

"As far as I am concerned, the price hiking has resulted from the lifted purchase price from farmers. The action aims to safeguard the farmers' interests. What is more, some profiteers have forestalled grains so as to sell them at a fairly high price."

With regard to the soaring food price in the global market, Li Guoxiang believes that the increasing demand and the production cost are the main causes, irrelevant to China's disasters.

"China is a vast country. If disasters hit one region, other areas will not suffer a lot. But for other countries, things would be different. Furthermore, China normally tries all means to ensure the grain output when facing natural calamities. But other countries may first seek compensation from insurance companies for farmers. As a result, the grain output will see a decrease, which may lift the food price in the global market."

Li Guoxiang believes that China has sufficient storage of grain crops. Some profiteers are taking advantage of China's floods to gain unreasonable profits. Li says the profiteering has fluctuated China's food price and negatively affected the world food security.

So far, the death toll from heavy rains lashing central and southern China has risen to at least 94, with 78 people missing.

For CRI, this is Wei Tong.