China’s biofuels industry is taking off more quickly than the government wishes, according to a report carried by the 国际新闻社 (IPS) 通讯社。
The article states that China’s government is concerned that surging crop prices for maize and other edible grains for producing biofuel could undermine the country’s food security. While it wants to support the growth of alternative energy sources, Beijing says food security should take precedence over the country’s "green agenda."
"In China the first thing is to provide food for its 1.3 billion people, and after that, we will support biofuel production," said Wang Xiaobing, an official at the Agriculture Ministry’s crops cultivation department in the state-run newspaper 人民日报 本星期。
China has been encouraging the production of biofuel such as ethanol and methane from renewable resources to reduce the country’s growing dependence on imported oil. Once an exporter, China now imports at least 43%t of its oil supply. Chinese economic planners have made the development of green energies, like ethanol fuel and biodiesel, a key priority in the country’s five-year economic plan. By 2020, they want green energies to account for 15% of all transportation fuels in the country.
然而，对生物燃料的需求激增现在部分归咎于近期食品市场价格上涨和粮食库存短缺。据报道，北京已开始拍卖部分小麦储备，以阻止农作物价格上涨。尽管预测今年将再次丰收，但中国政府官员感到有必要限制使用玉米生产生物燃料。
"We have a principle with biofuel: it should neither impact the people’s grain consumption, nor should it compete with grain crops for cultivated land," said Yang Jian, director of the development planning department under the Agriculture Ministry. Government officials estimate that maize contributes around three-fourths of the raw material used for making ethanol in China. Output of ethanol is projected at 1.3 million tonnes this year. Experts however, say that output from private and public producers this year may reach five million tonnes.
生物燃料产业蓬勃发展
With biofuel demand booming, producers have been ramping up production and new players have been entering the market. They made only one million tonnes of ethanol in 2005, but by 2010 China’s ethanol-fuel production may reach as high as 10 million tonnes, local press reports say. As biofuel is produced from renewable biological resources, what government officials worry is that possible overcapacity may lead to a shortage of edible grains and feedstock supplies. This has already happened with cornstalk used in ethanol production. Cornstalk prices in China have jumped 500% to US $30 per tonne since 2005.
Industrial maize processing in China consumed 23 million tonnes of maize in 2005, an annual increase of 16.5% over 2001, while maize production increased at the slower rate of 5% during the same period, according to a circular released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic body.
IPS 的文章指出，虽然食品和燃料生产商之间争夺谷物的竞争并不仅限于中国，但这个问题在中国尤为严重，因为该国的人均耕地面积很低，无法养活庞大的人口。
The grain crop is expected to hit a record 490 million tons this year — the third straight year of bumper harvests — but Chinese planners are worried that fast-shrinking farming land could affect grain supply in the near future. Arable land is said to have shrunk by 8 million hectares (Ha) between 1999 and 2005.
专家警告说，如果乙醇生产继续以玉米为基础，中国将在 2008 年之前被迫进口这种作物。依赖作物进口是一个敏感问题，因为政府的政策是为了国家安全而支持粮食自给自足。
“玉米加工过快增长，导致牲畜饲料短缺，影响畜牧业发展。一些主产区甚至考虑进口玉米，”国家发改委通知说。它要求当地生产商加紧努力，从马铃薯和甜高粱等非粮食来源生产乙醇。
然而，由于缺乏合适的农业技术，木薯和高粱等非粮食原料的大规模种植尚未大规模实施，中国生产商仍在继续使用玉米生产乙醇。