China’s soy bean plant area continues to fall, shrinking by 10 million mu (666,666 hectares) from 2010 and 20 million mu from 2009, the National Business Daily reported Wednesday, citing the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

With a withering plant area, soy bean output in 2011 is set to fall from the 2010 production of 14.5 million tons, while demand for the crop is to reach 55 million tons this year, the paper said.

As much as 80 percent of soy beans on the Chinese market are imported, according to Fang Yan, vice-director of the rural economy department at the NDRC.

Soy bean imports are expected to drop to 51 million tons this year, down 6.9 percent from 2010, according to the China National Grain and Oils Information Center. It would be the first time for soy bean imports to fall since 2004, the paper said.

But the center projects the import volume to rise to 54 million tons in 2012.

China imported 54.8 million tons of soy beans in 2010, up 28.8 percent year-on-year, according to Customs.