Yet the country has become a net importer of all three crops since 2011, although imports so far only account for a small proportion of the nation's huge overall consumption, official data showed.
Soybeans took up the largest proportion of the country's food imports. Imports of soybeans hit a record high of 54.8 million metric tons in 2010, according to official data.
Meanwhile, this year's imports of the crop are expected to exceed 55 million tons, Chen said.
A growing population, ongoing urbanization, and a dietary shift toward more meat consumption - which would require more crops as animal feed - all put an upward pressure on the country's demand for imports, according to Chen.
"Urbanization will remain the engine for China's economic growth," he said. "But we need to address the problems in the agricultural sector in the process."
Chen said the government needs to prevent farmland from being transferred out of the agricultural sector, especially at a time when "farmland has urbanized at a higher speed than the population".
Other agricultural experts and industry analysts agreed with Chen, adding that the upward trend of food imports is likely to persist over the next few years.
"China's food prices have been at a relatively higher level than the global market in the recent years. This will encourage more imports in the near future," said Ma Wenfeng, a senior analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant Ltd, one of the industry's largest consultancies.
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