CHINA'S FOOD PRODUCTION has been increasing since the abolition of the agricultural tax - introduced more than a thousand years ago- in 2004. But food imports, too, have increased steadily and significantly in recent years. Southern Metropolis Daily commented on Monday:

After hitting an all-time-high of 621 million metric tons in 2015, China's food production seems to be overshadowed by the simultaneously increasing food imports, which have not just imposed extra financial burden on the country but also somewhat blunted the competitiveness of Chinese agricultural products in global markets.

The increase in food imports has a lot to do with China's price protection policy for domestic food procurement, which is aimed at helping farmers get proper prices for their products and ensure food security. The designed prices have been higher than the global average since 2011, prompting the government to procure costly homegrown food products for storage while buying from overseas markets to meet people's consumption demands.