China drought hits 35% of country’s wheat crop

BEIJING (Commodity Online) : China’s northern provinces remained under extreme drought as the region eagerly awaits projected snow and rain for the next three days which may ease the situation.
According to China’s National Meteorological Center, Henan, the top wheat-growing region, and southern Shandong, the second-biggest producer, may get as much as 3 millimeters of rain or snow by Feb. 10.
Anhui and Jiangsu provinces are also expected to get rain or snow, the weather forecaster’s added.
About 35 percent of the wheat crop in China’s eight main- growing regions has been affected by dry conditions since October.
The devastated drought has badly damaged the winter wheat crop and left the ground very dry for the spring planting.
The winter wheat crop has been parched since then in northern China while unusually widespread frost has hurt the vegetable crop in southern China.
Some of the driest areas are close to Beijing, which has had no appreciable precipitation since Oct. 23, although there were brief snow flurries on Dec. 29.
Food prices have been rising around the world, a result of weather problems in many countries, like the unusual heat wave in Russia last summer.
But even a prolonged drought in China appears highly unlikely to cause acute food shortages. China has spent years accumulating very large government reserves of grain and also has $2.85 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, giving it virtually unlimited ability to import food as long as major grain producers do not limit exports.

(Source: http://www.commodityonline.com/crops-weather/China-drought-hits-35-of-country%E2%80%99s-wheat-crop-2011-02-07-36274-3-1.html)