Ministry of Commerce: "China's rice imports have doubled" is not a fact.

In response to recent reports that China's rice imports increased several times last year, Ministry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang refuted on the 29th: "this statement is not true at all."

Shen Danyang made the above statement at a regular press conference held by the Ministry of Commerce on the same day. Recently, there have been reports abroad that China's rice imports increased several times in 2014, and said that the rapid growth was due to consumers' unease about domestic rice.

According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, China imported 2.58 million tons of rice in 2014, accounting for only about 1.3 percent of China's domestic output, an increase of 13.6 percent over the same period last year, Shen Danyang said. "this is not a multiplication at all." He said.

According to Shen Danyang's analysis, there are two main reasons for the increase in rice imports: first, the increasing price gap at home and abroad has led to an increase in enterprises' willingness to import; second, the consumption demand of some domestic high-income consumer groups and high-end restaurants for Thai fragrant rice and Japanese rice has increased. "whatever the reason, it is the result of the role of the market."

"although rice imports account for a small proportion of China's domestic rice production at present, we will pay close attention to and analyze it next." Shen Danyang said.