Chinese state television has shone light on the taboo topic of poor quality grains held in bulging government warehouses, in one of the first official acknowledgments that the country’s vast agricultural reserves may have badly degraded.
Undercover footage aired by state broadcaster CCTV this weekend, in a report entitled “Rats in the Granary”, documented officials at state grain warehouses in northeast China buying old or inferior grain for discounted prices, while filing paperwork to show they were buying new grain at the state-set price and rotating out old stocks. Grain prices are subsidised by the government, which guarantees a minimum price.
Rice stocks documented in the report had sprouted, turned colour or smelled of mildew.