Such an increase leaves a large room for more US imports, said Liu Xiaoyu, head of the feed division at Cofco, China’s largest grains trader. China’s total imports may be more than 2.8 million tons this year, Liu said. China has increased purchasing of the feed ingredient this year after becoming a net importer of corn in 2009 for the first time in 14 years as drought damaged crops. “China produces 115 million tons of compound feed, 10 percent of which can use the material as a raw material, based on standard feed formula,” said Liu. “As it only produces 1,5 million tons of the grains domestically, potentially it could consume another 10 million tons,” he said.