Miller Magazine Issue: 152 August 2022

89 COUNTRY PROFILE MILLER / AUGUST 2022 China’s agricultural activities are vital to ensuring food security for its 1.4 billion people and the country plays a major role in shaping internation- al grain markets. The Asian country is expected to see stable grain production this year. Howev- er, diminishing arable land, shifting demograph- ics, and natural disasters present food security challenges to China. China is the world’s most populous country and the second largest economy. China’s economy is larger than those of the next four economies - Japan, Ger- many, the United Kingdom, and India – combined. In 2020, its gross domestic product (GDP) was valued at US$14.7 trillion according to the World Bank. Follow- ing real GDP growth of 8.1 percent in 2021, growth is projected to slow to 5.0 percent in 2022. The fore- cast reflects rising headwinds: Domestic demand has slowed, and the global economic environment has worsened significantly with the war in Ukraine. In ad- dition, COVID incursions have become more frequent and widespread. China is the world’s largest agricultural producer by volume and the world’s second-largest agricultural importer by value. The Asian country is a global pro- ducer of rice, cotton, pork, fish, wheat, tea, potatoes, corn, peanuts, millet, barley, apples, cotton, oilseed, pork, fish and more. China’s grain outlook