China denies hoarding overseas farmland

A senior Ministry of Agriculture official yesterday dismissed foreign media reports about China hoarding overseas farmland, saying the country is fully capable of ensuring its own food security.

"Such reports are groundless and not factual we have not hoarded any farmland overseas and have taken no steps to introduce any such policy," Li Zhengdong, director of the ministry's international cooperation department, told a press conference held by the Foreign Ministry on the agenda of President Hu Jintao's visit to the outreach session of the G8 summit in Japan next week.

Li was responding to a report in the Financial Times on May 13 that China has been encouraging its firms to purchase overseas farmland, and that the Ministry of Agriculture is in talks with Brazil about acquiring land for soy production.