China has bought more than 20 shiploads of feed grain on the international market in the past two weeks, the world’s biggest importer taking advantage of prices falling to their lowest levels in three years, Bloomberg reported.

According to sources close to the transactions, China bought large volumes of corn, sorghum and barley from several suppliers, including Ukraine and the United States. It would be about the purchase of more than 1.2 million tons of grain, taking into account that the average ship carries 60 thousand tons of grain.

The buying frenzy comes at a time when prices are rising in China, but benchmark corn on the Chicago Stock Exchange hit its lowest level since 2020 on heavy supplies from major exporters such as Brazil and the United States.

This widening of the gap between prices in the local market and prices at the international level has made buying from abroad even more attractive.

China’s purchases include at least 10 ships loaded with corn from Ukraine due to be delivered between March and May, at least five ships loaded with sorghum from the U.S. and six ships loaded with barley for delivery in the same period, the sources said.

Grain prices on the Chinese market rose as the Beijing government decided to speed up the process of stockpiling grain for the state reserve to support the market until the new crop is planted.

State purchases compensated for the modest demand for fodder grain from the livestock sector, where pig farmers suffered losses.

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