CHINA received its final shipment of food aid yesterday, a historic moment as the most rapidly developing country marked the end of 25 years as a recipient of United Nations help.

The merchant vessel Blue Dream, carrying 43,450 tonnes of grain worth £3.8 million, docked in the bustling port of Shiwan near the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

As huge cranes began the five-day process of unloading the wheat, Dominique Frankefort, deputy director of the UN World Food Programme in the country, hailed China’s success in feeding the hungry. “There are fewer and fewer hungry people in China.

“There are around 26 million ultra-poor left and the Government will take care of them now using a variety of activities, probably cash for work rather than food for work programmes,” Mr Frankefort said.

China, the world’s most populous country, with 1.3 billion people, has had periodic famines for centuries and still faces the threat of drought in some regions.

During the 25 years that China has been receiving food aid, the Chinese Government says, it has lifted 300 million people out of poverty. The World Food Programme reckons that since 1979 it has distributed nearly four million tonnes of wheat to more than 30 million people in China.

As you drive on modern motorways through the wealthy southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, its skyline of gleaming skyscrapers almost rivalling its richer neighbour Hong Kong, it is hard to imagine where the food aid could possibly be going. But this wheat is intended for distribution to more than 400,000 poor farmers and their families to support food-for-work schemes in four of China’s poorest areas: Gansu, Guangxi, Ningxia and Shanxi.

Although rapid economic growth has produced new wealth in China, it has also led to a growing gap between rich and poor. The richer cities of the eastern and southern coasts have seen vast development, but much of the country’s dry central areas remain poor.

The Government has used food aid programmes to limit the gap between rich and poor in its attempt to ensure social stability and avoid unrest.

With China’s economic strength increasing, the UN humanitarian agency has urged Beijing to step up support for hundreds of millions of malnourished people beyond its borders.

James Morris, the World Food Programme executive director, said the fact that China no longer needed food aid was a tribute to its success at alleviating hunger at home. “China is now one of the world’s leaders in fighting hunger. We need China’s help and resources to apply the crucial lessons learnt here to other countries still struggling with hunger.”

China attained food self- sufficiency in the mid-1990s and feeds its 1.3 billion people although only 15 per cent of its land is arable. The WFP will officially end its assistance programme to China at the end of this year.

By 2000, the average per capita calorie intake of China’s rural population had reached 2,600 kilocalories, which is more than the internationally recommended minimum.

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