China aims to keep grain output above 500m tonnes in 2008

China has vowed to keep grain output above 500 million tonnes in 2008 as the world's largest producer and consumer of rice struggles to cope with rising global grain prices, state media said Thursday.
"We will strive to stabilise full-year grain output at more than 500 million tonnes," said Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai, according to the China Securities Journal.
In 2007, China produced more than 501.5 million tonnes of grain, almost level with the nation's annual consumption of 510 million tonnes, official data showed.
Sun also pledged to strictly control the development of biofuels to protect the country's grain supplies and arable land banks, according to the China Daily Thursday.
Biofuels, transformed from corn, wheat, soy beans and sugar cane, are accused by experts and international organisations of snatching food out of the mouths of the poor.
“China will never develop biofuels at the cost of grain supplies or arable land," Sun was quoted by the report as saying.