BEIJING, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- China National Cereals, Oils & Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO), the country's largest oil and food producer, plans to build a soybean-processing plant in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region with a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes a year, said Wednesday's China Daily.

    The newspaper said, citing sources familiar with the 1.85-billion-yuan (264.3-million-U.S. dollar) project, that construction is likely to start in September in Qinzhou, in the Beibu Gulf economic zone.

    This is the second big soybean-processing factory built by COFCO. In April it opened a 4-billion-yuan oil-pressing project in Tianjin.

    China's major edible oil producers, including Sino grain Oils & Fats Industrial Co and Jilin Grain Group, have also lined up plans to open new factories to boost capacity.

    Per-capita edible oil consumption is 14.5 kilograms a year in China.

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