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Does anyone have an idea of what percentage of China's total gain imports (and I guess net consumption) the "increased hoarding" represents? Eyeballing the gra
by icegreentea2 5y ago
Does anyone have an idea of what percentage of China's total gain imports (and I guess net consumption) the "increased hoarding" represents?
Eyeballing the graph in the article, it looks like since 2016, China has increased its share of global wheat stocks from like 40% to 50%. Combined with a claim that China has enough wheat stocks to feed itself for a year and a half, that seems to indicate that on average China's "hoarding" increased its overall wheat "consumption" by roughly 10% per year?
That's obviously a significant chunk of wheat, and since, all the prices are interconnected, it obviously has a role to play in global food inflation, but I find the connection made in the article to be unsatisfying. Like it's an obviously true statement, but it also lacks any sense of magnitude of contribution.
I also wonder how the population vs stock share comparison would look like if you limited to say G20 nations. Obviously richer countries have more capacity to stockpile relative to population. Re-scaling that way would put China's behavior in (I think) better context.