China has single-handedly reshaped the global agricultural commodity-supply chain in the 21st century. The combination of more mouths to feed with even faster-growing wealth in the world's most populous nation has made China a magnet for farm goods, especially from the U.S., which now sells more of its harvest to China than any other country.
The share of farm commodities shipped overseas—ranging from corn, soybeans and wheat to cotton, coffee and rubber—that China has imported has gone from 5.4 percent in 2000 to 21 percent in 2015. The $48.3 billion of bulk agricultural commodities that China imported in 2015 was more than that of the next four largest buyers—Germany, the U.S., Japan and the Netherlands—combined.
Values in billions of U.S. dollars
Note: Figures are nominal.
Percent change: Data is shown on a logarithmic scale, which is often used in graphs where there’s a large range of numbers. In a logarithmic scale similar percentage changes are given similar space. So the distance from 1,000 to 2,000 is the same as the distance from 100 to 200, while in a linear scale the distance would be ten times as great.
China’s seemingly endless appetite has reshaped the global landscape. Soybeans may become the most-planted crop in the U.S. for the first time since 1983 this year, largely because of rising Asian demand. And China’s desire for non-genetically modified Ukrainian corn has pushed the Black Sea nation, a traditional wheat powerhouse, to plant more of the grain. But China’s dominance may have its limits. It’s expecting to begin losing population by mid-century, and economic growth is slowing. That may leave countries with faster-growing populations, such as India, Indonesia and Nigeria, as the next big global destinations, changing the flavor of the world’s food chain.