Guangdong denies reports of grain shortage

Guangdong assured its citizens that the province has sufficient grain supplies and denied reports of a shortage.

Authorities said that a report published by the China Economic Weekly, which claimed that the province faced a grain shortage of as much as 24 million tons a year was not true.

The provincial grain administration and agricultural department said that it had sufficient reserves to feed the people for five months.

Guangdong, which only has two million hectares of cultivated land, relies on other provinces for half of its food supply, The Standard said. According to the grain administration, Guangdong mports about 24 million tons of grain from other provinces and has maintained its maximum grain productivity of around 14 million tons a year for many years.

"The situation this year is very similar to what we've faced in the past," Cheng Ganrong, a publicity official with the provincial agricultural department, was quoted by Xinhua as saying. "Our reserves are sufficient and the price is stable. It is not necessary for people to hoard grain."