China's corn output is expected to increase 1.9 percent this year to hit a record 142 million tons, the China National Grain and Oils Information Center has predicted.

The center also forecast recently that the country's acreage of cornfields would rise by 2.1 percent this year from 2005.

The center attributed the increased acreage this year to the higher returns of farmers in Northeast China, the nation's major corn production base, from growing corn.

This prompted them to cut production of soybean and grow more corn.

China's cornfields stood at 26.2 million hectares in 2005 and the corn output amounted to 137 million tons.

China is one of the world's two biggest corn producers as well as the big exporter. Statistics showed that China imported 100,000 tons of corn in 2005 and exported 8.612 million tons.

Industrial insiders said China might become a net corn importer in 2008.

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2006)