Food crisis forces China to cut down rising biofuel industry

The Times of India
10 May 2008, 2013 hrs IST,Saibal Dasgupta,TNN

BEIJING: Rising food prices has forced China to cut down its ambitious plans to develop the biofuel industry. Plans that were announced last January involved allocating thousands of hectares of land for growing biofuel crops and offering financial subsidies to the industry.

The Chinese agriculture ministry on Saturday said it will "strictly control the development of biofuels" to protect the country's grain supplies, and arable land banks. The announcement comes following steep rise in the prices of food prices in China and a worldwide concern over the role played by the emerging biofuel industry in cause food grain shortages.

China is going through the worst inflation conditions in the past 11 years. Food prices have contributed nearly 40 per cent to the overall growth in inflation as measured by consumer price index.

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