BEIJING - China will offer financial support to more projects researching and developing genetically modified products in 2020, the country's agriculture ministry said on Thursday

* Applicants that have developed a new variety of GMO product can get as much as 5 million yuan ($744,313) from the central government, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement on its website

* Beijing has spent billions of dollars researching GMO crops but has held back from commercial production of any food grains because of consumer concerns about their safety

* China has said it aims to push forward the commercialisation of GMO corn and soybeans by 2020.

($1 = 6.7176 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton; editing by David Evans) ((Hallie.Gu@thomsonreuters.com; +86 10 6627 1250; Reuters Messaging: hallie.gu.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))