Asia Pacific Maize Market - Growth and Trends

The Asia-Pacific maize production has increased over the last decade, both in terms of area of cultivation and production. While the world’s maize production is growing at a rate of 3.5%, the Asia-Pacific maize production is growing at a CAGR of 5.2% in 2015-16. However, the forecast data of the Asia-Pacific region shows that maize production will be slow in the upcoming years. China’s annual maize production rate is expected to decline 5.5% annually from 5.7% by 2021. The same is the case with India, another big producer of maize in the Asia-Pacific. India’s annual maize production rate is expected to decrease from 6.5% to 4.5%. However, the overall production of maize will continue to grow with lower growth rates up to 2021.

In the Asia-Pacific, maize acreage has increased continuously over the last 10 years due to strong government support. The acreage and production increase is the fastest in China and India. At the same time, since both these countries account for the largest population in the world, the total arable land in these regions is shrinking day-by-day.

The total maize consumption in the Asia-Pacific is expected to surpass the world’s total maize production by 2020, and increase at a greater rate than the global consumption average. This is as a result of the increasing demand in the livestock feed sector and the use of maize in human food consumption. Consumption in India, China, Thailand, and Vietnam is expected to grow at the rate of 4.5% annually up to 2021, whereas, the world consumption rate is expected to grow at 3.5% annually.

The Asia-Pacific countries are struggling hard to gain self-sufficiency in the maize production. However, the majority of them except India have failed in gaining self-sufficiency. This shows the positive growth in the Indian maize production compared to its total consumption. There are many factors responsible for the production deficit in the Asia-Pacific.  These include lack of improved seeds and hybrids, limited modern technology and knowledge transfer to farmers and poor accessibility to the market and credit facilities.

The Asian maize deficit will continue to expand in the future. China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia will increase their maize import levels continuously. China and South Korea were the world’s largest animal feed producers in 2015, so these countries are expected to account for more maize imports the future. Philippines and Thailand are expected to maintain average levels in maize trading in the next few years. However, the Indonesian maize deficit is expected to expand to around 4.3 million metric tons by 2021, and so Indonesia is expected to become one of the largest maize importers by 2021.

In spite of the clear indication of an increase in the Asian maize imports by 2021, many countries like China and Indonesia are enforcing tight import control policies. Indonesia has a policy that requires the government to apply for special permit quota for importing maize. The Government of Indonesia is forcing policies for self-sufficiency in maize production and consumption. This will hamper the local market and supply-chain significantly in Indonesia and the government will need to reform its import policies. China is also tightening its import policies promoting the consumption of domestic maize.

North America is the biggest exporter for the Asian countries.

The Asia-Pacific Maize crop market report covers the following information –

• Crop production
• Asia-Pacific consumption
• Asia-Pacific trade (export-import) scenario and statistics
• Major enterprises and traders operating in the market
• Price trend and seasonality of the crop
• Future outlook of the crop market

Stakeholders who would benefit -

• Crop growers
• Enterprises providing agricultural inputs
• Traders and companies operating in the segment
• Crop processing companies
• Crop importers and exporters
• Investors/research institutions interested in the crop market