China, the world's largest wheat producer, may have to boost imports of the grain after drought curbed the domestic harvest, Commodore Research said.

More than half of wheat-growing fields in the eastern province of Shandong were affected by the region's worst drought in 60 years, China National Radio reported on January 30, without saying where it got the information. Crops in at least five other provinces, including top wheat grower Henan, have been affected by the unusual dryness, the Xinhua News Agency reported last month.

"Prospects for this year's wheat crop have changed dramatically, and it is possible that less than 100 million tons will be harvested," New York-based Commodore Research said in a note e-mailed late yesterday by President Jeffrey Landsberg. "As a result, China may be forced to import a larger-than- normal amount of wheat."

China had been expected to produce about 114.5 million metric tons of the grain in the 2010-11 marketing year, Commodore said. It means that in "upcoming months," Chinese wheat imports may exceed the 1.4 million tons purchased in the 2009-10 marketing year, it said.