As market operators note, in the nearest future China will be forced to increase the volumes of wheat import in order to fully satisfy demand on the domestic market, as well as replenish its state grain reserves. Despite recent statements that level of wheat reserves in China meet country’s crop needs for the next six months, the disparity of Chinese grain storage specifications have led to the loss of a significant part of the grain. In addition, part of the product is stored since 2010, and, considering storage conditions, its quality has deteriorated significantly.

Traders mention, that China plans to return to the import market of grain as soon as the price of wheat drops. In the meanwhile, the experts assume that the volume of external purchases can be quite large, but are unlikely to reach the record 2004/05 marketing year, when due to poor harvests China imported over 10 million tons of wheat.

In the beginning of April, when price of grain fell on the world market to its nine month lowest, China froze its purchases of products in the domestic market and imported several large shipments of wheat. However, from that point on the external market futures rose more than 4.3% on the revitalization of China on the international market. As a result, local traders were forced to postpone purchases of new products to the establishment of more favorable prices on the world market.