Chinese importers increase purchases of feed grain due to high domestic corn prices

traders familiar with the deals said. That’s three times more than was shipped in all of 2025. Chinese buyers have also been buying about 1 million tonnes of Australian barley each month since December — about double the average monthly amount last year, three traders involved in some of the deals said. “These sales are driven by very high corn prices in China and competitive prices in Australia,” said one grain trader, who expects Chinese demand for barley and sorghum to remain strong in the coming months. As of Jan. 29, 1.6 million tonnes of U.S. sorghum had been sold to China since the beginning of November, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), with 1.259 million tonnes of that being destined for destinations classified as “unknown.” Most of that sorghum is headed to China, said one trader familiar with the Chinese deals. In China, the average national corn price this week was about 2,250 yuan ($326.02) per tonne, up about 10% from a year ago, according to ...