Imports help feed hunger for grain

BEIJING - China ramped up its grain imports last year and its large reserves mean the country will not suffer from a severe shortage in 2011, according to a senior agricultural official.

China's net grain imports, including soybeans, reached more than 60 million tons in 2010.

Of that total, the country imported 54.8 million tons of soybeans last year, which accounted for 60 percent of the world's total, said Chen Xiwen, director of the office for the Communist Party of China Central Committee's Leading Group on Rural Work.