CHINA'S grain output, which includes rice, wheat, corn and soybean, exceeded 500 million tons this year, making it the fourth consecutive year of increases.

The announcement on Saturday by Minister of Agriculture Sun Zhengcai came as the country hoped a bumper crop would help slow increases in the price of food.

Huge rises in food prices lifted the nation's consumer price index to an 11-year high of 6.9 percent in November. Food prices soared 18.2 percent last month and make up 33 percent of the CPI weighting.

The central government is concerned inflation will worsen and make the lives of poor people much more difficult.

However, Sun said grain output was still short of demand this year. He did not give further details.

He said the per capita grain supply dropped from 412 kilograms in 1996 to 378 kilograms last year.

Grain output peaked at 512 million tons in 1998.

Feeding the country's more than 1.3 billion people is becoming more challenging as farmland is shrinking and more farmers are relocating to towns or cities.

An annual grain output of 500 million tons through 2010 is needed to ensure an adequate food supply.

Due to rising food prices, the central government scrapped export rebates for 84 agricultural products on Thursday. This is designed to increase domestic supply.