‘The soil is as hard as rock’: Farmers reel from China heatwave as food inflation looms

Wang, who grows rice and an assortment of veggies, said several of their chickens had passed away. “For 10 days or so, the chicken pen was so hot, even my largest chicken that weighed over 4kg died. ” 

Without cooling steps, Pay said it only takes a couple of days of forty degrees Celsius temperature for animals to die.  

Another factor pressing up prices is the rising cost of materials imports.  

During the drought, water levels were therefore low that some inland shipping ways were no longer practical.  

The Yangtze River is really a key logistics channel for the shipping associated with imported agricultural goods like corn plus soybean, which are not loaded at a port within Wuhan to get prepared into livestock give food to in central Tiongkok.  

These types of shipping channels have been cut off and ships had to unload a lot closer to the coast, Pay said, which usually added time plus cost. As a result, a few major feed makers said they will enhance the prices of this halloween, poultry and seafood feed.  

The regions impacted by the drought account for about 30 % of China’s grain production area.  

But even if there is a shortage of rice – the staple food within China – specialists said the government is likely to stabilise grain prices by tapping upon its stockpile.  

China’s grain reserves are the largest in the world, containing enough to feed China’s population for a yr even without any pick this year.  

“I don’t believe there will be an immediate food crisis, ” stated Wang Dan, the main economist at Hang Seng bank.