BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Saturday that China has achieved another year of bumper harvest in 2018 with grain output remaining at a high level.

The grain output stood at 657.89 million tonnes, down by 3.71 million tonnes or 0.6 percent from last year, the NBS said in a statement on its website.

NBS statistician Hou Rui attributed the decline to changes in cropping structure and decrease in planting area, which shrank by 952,000 hectares from the previous year.

China's grain output remained strong despite the decline, and per unit yield has improved thanks to favorable weather conditions, Hou said.

Cereal output reached 6,120 kg per hectare, up 0.3 percent from last year, while the per unit yield of beans grew by 2.7 percent, NBS data showed.