Long a staple crop in Sub-Saharan Africa, no region or country can compete with the roller coaster and meteoric rise of sorghum consumption in China. In the past ten years, China has gone from being the world’s seventh largest consumer of sorghum to the number one slot with twice amount of disappearance as its closest competitor. Consumption in other countries has dropped as they instead ship supplies to the Middle Kingdom.

Sorghum is not a new crop to China. Consumption was also high back in the 1970’s until the policy focus on producing corn. Indeed, it is the tightness in the corn market that is driving the spike in sorghum demand. Consequently, it is possible that the current trend will slow, assuming Beijing’s rene...