Hubei has sufficient grain supply, official says

Hubei province has sufficient grain stock and the existing raw stock can supply the whole province's residents for more than a year, an official with the province's grain bureau said on Saturday.

Hu Xinming, deputy director of Hubei's grain bureau, said in a daily press brief in Wuhan, the capital city of the Hubei, the hardest-hit province by the novel coronavirus in China, adding that the province's refined grain reserve can fully meet the current market demand.

Part of people in Hubei are concerned about food supply and some of the province's retail terminals have also seen the phenomenon of large purchase of grain and edible oil in a short period, according to Hu.

"Hubei has abundant reserve of refined grain, which can guarantee 30-day demand capacity, higher than regulated 10 to 15 days' capacity," he said.

Regarding raw grain inventory, the proportion of the stock in sales in Hubei is much higher than 17 to 18 percent, the standard line of food security storage set by the food and agriculture organization of the United Nations, Hu added.

Hu noted that the national grain inventory is roughly equivalent to the annual consumption of the whole nation. Besides, the production capacity of wheat and rice in China is much higher than the annual grain consumption.

Many enterprises are also overcoming the difficulties caused by the epidemic, product and sale at full capacity, while meeting the province's supply, the sales volume to other province is also recovering, he added.