13% of Wheat Purchased at Support Price

China purchased 13 million metric tons of wheat through its minimum procurement price program this year, according to the director of the State Administration of Food and Commodity Reserves. Purchases were made in provinces of Henan, Anhui, Hebei, and Shandong. 

The director also announced that a total of 100.16 million metric tons of wheat has been procured during the peak marketing season. Thus, 13% of this year's crop was purchased at the minimum price and stored in government reserves.

The director said wheat procurement began early this year and proceeded smoothly as most farmers sought to sell their grain as soon as it was harvested. The minimum price program gave farmers a "bottom line" that guaranteed that farmers could sell their wheat at a good price, the director said.

The minimum price for wheat this year is RMB 2,380 per metric ton for grade 3 wheat. The Chinese support price works out to US$ 9 per bushel at the current exchange rate. By comparison, the futures price for U.S. wheat is currently about $5.07 per bushel.

The simple average of procurement prices paid for all wheat reported weekly by the Administration of Food and Commodity Reserves from May to September was RMB 2,410 per metric ton.

China reported producing 138.16 million metric tons of wheat this year, so 9.4% of all wheat produced in 2025 was purchased at the minimum price. (The minimum price program only operates in 5 provinces representing about 82% of wheat output.)

The value of the wheat purchased at minimum price is RMB 30.94 billion ($4.3 billion at the current exchange rate). 

A calculation with simple assumptions shows that the value of wheat purchased at minimum price was 8.5% of the value of wheat produced in China this year.