BEIJING, CHINA — China plans to start selling corn from its state reserves on May 28 to address the tightening of grain supplies, according to a Reuters report.

A notice on the National Grain Trade Centre’s website said 4 million tonnes of corn, all from China’s northeastern corn belt region, will be offered for sale.

Compared to the same time last year, corn stockpiles at China’s northern and southern ports were both lower as of mid-May, Reuters reported.

Due to increased demand, corn prices in the country’s top corn-producing province, Harbin, have jumped 15%, Meng Jinhu, a senior analyst with Shenga Futures, told Reuters.

After stockpiling corn for many years, China began selling off a portion of its huge inventories in 2016. Last year it sold 21.91 million tonnes of corn from its reserves.

China, which is not an exporter of corn, is forecast to produce 260 million tonnes of corn in 2020-21 while importing 7 million tonnes. Ending stocks are projected at 200 million tonnes, down from a high of 223 million in 2016-17.