Corn prices had risen by 23.81 per cent to 1,352 yuan ($163) per tonne in mid-August this year from 1,092 yuan in July last year because of huge exports and falling output in 1997.

But an expected bumper harvest of corn this year would depress corn prices in the rest of this year, traders said.

Corn output this year was estimated at about 115.545 million tonnes, up 10.8 per cent year-on-year, said the China Overseas Grain, Oil and Feed Information.

The area under corn this year was expected to be 23.721 million hectares, up 2.15 per cent from last year, said the industrial newsletter.

Summer floods in the northeastern provinces along the Nen and Songhua rivers had negligible impact on corn output due to smaller planting areas and low yields in the flood-hit areas, it said.

Floods mainly affected the soybean crop in Heilongjiang, while othertypes of beans were seriously hit in Jilin province, it said.

Corn output in Heilongjiang was estimated at 12.5 million tonnes this year while Jilin was expected to post a record harvest of 18 million tonnes, it said.

If no early frost occurred, Inner Mongolia was expected to produce 6.5 million tonnes of corn this year while corn output in Liaoning would be 9.5 million tonnes, it said.

Corn output in northern Hebei, central Henan and the eastern province of Shandong, which were hit by drought last year, was also seen rising this year, it said.

However, domestic corn consumption was expected to be lower than the level of 115 million tonnes last year, it said.

Shipping difficulties caused by devastating floods also affected South China's demand for corn from the North.

Residents in the flood-hit areas and laid-off workers sharply reduced consumption of meat and eggs, which further hit the sluggish feed industry.

Farmers suffered more than 100 yuan in losses for every 100 kg of hog meat sold thisyear, a sharp reversal from last year, when they earned 100-150 yuan in profits per 100 kg, it said.

China's corn exports in 1998 would be lower than expected in the face of competition from the United States and reduced exports to financial crisis-plagued south-east Asian countries, traders said.

China's corn exports reached 2.7 million tonnes in the first seven months of 1998, up a year-on-year 2.1 per cent, customs figures showed.