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The world's third-largest food aid donor last year was China. It has overtaken Japan and is only behind the United States and the European Union in giving assistance to other countries, a United Nations humanitarian agency said yesterday.

"In the same year it stopped receiving food aid from the World Food Program (WFP), China emerged as the world's third-largest food aid donor in 2005," the WFP said in a statement. According to the WFP, body global food aid grew by 10 percent to 8.2 million metric tons last year.

And China accounted for more than half of that growth contributing 577,000 tons of food which is a jump of 260 percent from the previous year, the agency said, citing the latest annual Food Aid Monitor from the International Food Aid Information System.

"China is playing an increasingly important role in ensuring that hungry countries have enough to eat," WFP's Senior Public Affairs Officer Anthea Webb told China Daily last night. "We're very impressed that it's matching its economic prowess with generosity for the hungry." In particular, China last year sent food to the victims of the tsunami in Sri Lanka through the WFP, Webb said in a telephone interview from Rome, Italy.

"Donations of food made the difference between life and death after the tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake and in Sudan and we are extremely grateful to all who gave last year," WFP Executive Director James Morris said in a statement.

According to the WFP the US remained the world's most generous food aid donor providing 4 million metric tons, or 49 percent, of all foodstuffs. Donations from the EU totaled 1.5 million metric tons. Japan, the third-largest donor in 2004, ranked fourth in 2005, donated more than 402,000 metric tons of food, according to the WFP statement.

Wheat and wheat flour were the main commodities donated followed by coarse grains--mostly maize and maize meal and rice, the statement added. China's donations were directed to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Sri Lanka and a dozen other countries, according to the WFP report. 

The WFP began working in China in 1979 and ended its food aid assistance to the country at the end of 2005. Due to China's strenuous efforts and international support at least 300 million people had been lifted out of extreme poverty by 2005.

"With China's incredible progress on fighting hunger at home there are surely many lessons we could apply abroad," Webb said. The WFP is looking to China's vast wealth of talent, expertise and energy to assist countries still grappling with hunger, she said. "We're looking for experts in emergency relief operations and agronomists."

Vice-Minister of Agriculture Niu Dun said earlier that China is still a developing country with 26 million poverty-stricken rural residents. While making its due contribution to WFP undertakings Niu said China expected the body to continue supporting the development of China's poor rural areas.

(China Daily July 21, 2006)