China expected to import more protein-rich wheat

Economists like Farm Credit Canada’s J.P. Gervais are predicting that the Chinese market will be an important one to watch in 2015. It is not even a week into the new year, and reports are already surfacing that China is expected to boost its imports of wheat in the short term.

China is the world’s largest producer of wheat, but it is also the largest consumer. Despite an increase in domestic production, the country is facing a shortage of high-quality, high-protein wheat for food production. On Monday, European traders revealed that China had already purchased about 120,000 tonnes of hard wheat in the first few days of 2015.

It isn’t expected that this will be a long-term trend, as Beijing maintains an import quota and huge state reserves; however, it could bolster prices for hard wheat in the short term.