(Yicai Global) May 17 -- India’s recent ban on wheat exports will lead to tight global supply, but will have only a negligible affect on China, a country self-sufficient in the cereal, according to a farming analyst.

China’s wheat imports soared to a record 9.7 million tons last year, consisting mainly of high-quality wheat such as durum for baking, Jiang Yan, an analyst at the research institute of agricultural data and consultancy provider BRIC Agri-Info Group, told Yicai Global. Indian wheat, which is relatively poor in quality, was not among the imported types, she added.

China produced 137 million tons of wheat last year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, meaning imports accounted for just 6.6 percent of the country’s need in 2021.

India, the world’s second-largest wheat producer after China, announced a ban of exports on May 14 to safeguard the domestic food supply amid a heat wave. The country accounted for about 14 percent of global wheat output last year, according to the US Department of Agriculture, though its exports of the cereal ranked eighth, making up only 4 percent of the total.

In the last two months, however, Indian wheat has been a substitute for that produced in the Ukraine and has been supplying West Asia, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, Jiang noted.

Global wheat supply has been hit by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, said Zhang Zhixian, an analyst at agricultural information provider Cngrain. Some countries have taken measures to restrict exports of the crop, he said, adding that global wheat prices will remain high.

Russia and Ukraine ranked second and fifth, respectively, for wheat exports last year, according to the USDA.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione