China's maize crop in the north and north east has been attacked by a outbreak of armyworms. Armyworm are the caterpillar larvae of the moth Spodeptera frugiperda and are notorious for devouring everything in their path.

Reports from China.org.cn say 700 thousand hectares of crop have been attacked in Heibei Province. In northeast Liaoning Province, armyworms have destroyed one third of the crop. It is thought that up to 10% of China's maize crop could be lost to the pest.

A spokesman for the Crop Production Department of the the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said the recent outbreak of armyworms in major grain producing regions in northern and northeastern China has posed a severe threat to the production of corn and rice in the country.

Today China's National Grain and Oils Information Center lowered its 2012 corn forecast by 0.5 million tonnes to 197 million tons.

Analysts suggest that coupled with the news of a poor corn harvest from the US this will push global prices even higher.

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