cereal

" Global cereal production hit a record of 2.04 billion tons in 2004, which leaded to an increase in cereal stocks for the first time in five years. According to United Nations statistics, China’s cereal production is the largest in the world. The continuation of recent cereal yield trends should be sufficient to cope with most of the demographically driven expansion of cereal demand that will occur until the year 2025. For example, China had a total domestic cereal production of 388 million tons in 1996. This included the production of 110.6 million tons of wheat, 131.4 million tons of rice (in milled equivalent), 127.9 million tons of maize, and 18.2 million tons of other cereals, such as rye, oats, millet, sorghum. Of course, there were also some cereal exports and imports. In 1996 China had net-imports of 16.5 million tons of cereals (including 8.4 million tons of wheat and 6.2 million tons of other cereals). China removed almost 7 million tons of cereals (primarily maize) from stocks. On balance China had a domestic cereal supply of 411.5 million tons, including almost 120 million tons of wheat, 131.9 million tons of rice, and 139.3 million tons of maize. "