2023-09-16 09:46:07
Image by ImageParty from Pixabay
The benchmark rice index jumped 10% month-on-month to a 15-year high amid India’s export curbs. The country, leader in global trade, in fact imposed a 20% tax on shipments of parboiled rice in August after deciding on July 20 to suspend shipments of non-basmati white rice until further notice. the international market.
Last Friday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said that global rice prices reached their highest level in 15 years in August. They have, according to the same source, increased 9.8% month-on-month after India’s export restrictions.
“Rice prices are directly affected by the decision taken on July 21 by New Delhi to ban the export of non-basmati white rice in order to preserve enough of this product for its inhabitants,” comments the UN organization. She recalled that India accounts for 40% of global rice trade and sells quantities of broken rice to Africa, particularly Senegal, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Benin, as well as Asia. and in the Middle East.
Uncertainty over the duration of the Indian ban has “driven supply chain actors to hold back inventory, renegotiate contracts or stop making price proposals, and therefore limit the majority of trade at small volumes and sales already concluded,” analyzes the FAO in its press release.
Rice reserves abundant!
It should be noted that some countries have started to take emergency measures to deal with the situation. For example, the Philippines has entered into an agreement with Vietnam to secure their rice imports for the next five years.
While waiting for the new harvests, facing uncertainties over the duration of the ban decision by India and fears that export restrictions will be extended to other types of rice, the global rice market has tightened, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations . Thus, several States have chosen to keep stocks, renegotiate contracts or to stop making price offers.
It should also be noted that rice reserves in the world are abundant. According to the organization, “global rice stocks are still expected to reach their highest level on record at the close of the 2023-2024 marketing years, after an increase of 1.4% compared to 2022- 2023.