Results 1 to 4 of 4
  1. #1
    Out there...
    StrontiumDog's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    BKK
    Posts
    40,030

    India to Dethrone Thailand, Vietnam as Top Rice Exporter

    India to Dethrone Thailand, Vietnam as Top Rice Exporter - Bloomberg

    India to Dethrone Thailand, Vietnam as Top Rice Exporter

    By Pratik Parija and Prabhudatta Mishra - May 9, 2012 1:19 PM GMT+0700

    India, the largest rice grower after China, is poised to rival Vietnam as the world’s biggest shipper, ending Thailand’s 30-year reign, after favorable weather and higher government prices boosted the harvest to a record.

    Exports may climb to 7 million metric tons in the year ending Aug. 31, said Samarendu Mohanty, a senior economist at the International Rice Research Institute. That’s more than double the 2.8 million tons shipped in 2010-2011, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Vietnam will export 7 million tons and Thailand 6.5 million tons, USDA data show.

    Rice, the staple for half the world, has slumped 17 percent since reaching the highest price since 2008 in September after India ended a three-year ban on exports of non-basmati varieties. Prices will probably stay under pressure in coming months as global production outpaces demand for an eighth year. That may extend a decline in global food costs, which fell for the first time this year in April, United Nations data show. Thailand was the top shipper last year with 10.6 million tons.

    “There is a possibility of India emerging as the largest exporter,” Mohanty said in a phone interview from Manila. A good harvest will allow the country to continue exports next year, said Vijay Setia, president of the All India Rice Exporters’ Association. The next crop may be even higher as yields are increasing, he said.

    Rough-rice futures for July were little changed at $15.30 per 100 pounds on the Chicago Board of Trade today. Futures reached $18.54 in September.

    Record Output

    The harvest in India may climb 7.7 percent to 103.4 million tons from 96 million tons a year earlier, according to the farm ministry. State reserves of rice and wheat jumped 21 percent to 53.4 million tons as of April 1, said the Food Corp. of India. The minimum purchase price of the common variety of raw rice was increased to an all-time high of 1,080 rupees ($20) per 100 kilograms (220 pounds) in June from 1,000 rupees.

    Exports of non-basmati varieties exceeded 4 million tons since the ban was scrapped, according to government data. Indian shipments this year will represent 21 percent of global trade estimated at 33.9 million tons by the USDA.

    Global paddy production in 2012 is expected to increase 1.7 percent to 732.3 million tons, equivalent to 488.2 million tons of milled rice, exceeding consumption at 477 million tons and boosting inventories, the Rome-based Food & Agriculture Organization said May 4 in its first forecast for 2012-2013.

    While the USDA predicts Vietnam will ship 7 million tons this year, the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on May 2 forecast exports of 5.42 million tons, 11 percent below its previous estimate.

    Competitive Prices

    Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s attempts to boost farmer incomes through state purchases since taking power in August has slowed exports and created opportunities for India, said Mohanty. Indian rice is about $100 cheaper than supplies from Thailand, which is paying above market rates to farmers, he said. The Southeast Asian nation has bought 8 million tons from growers so far, he said.

    The free-on-board price of 25 percent broken long-grain white rice in Thailand costs as much as $520 a ton compared with $385 a ton in India, said Setia from the exporters’ association. “We are very competitive compared with Thailand because of a large surplus and a weaker rupee.”

    The Indian rupee has weakened about 5 percent against the dollar this quarter, making it the worst performing Asian currency. The Thai baht has dropped 0.7 percent.
    "Slavery is the daughter of darkness; an ignorant people is the blind instrument of its own destruction; ambition and intrigue take advantage of the credulity and inexperience of men who have no political, economic or civil knowledge. They mistake pure illusion for reality, license for freedom, treason for patriotism, vengeance for justice."-Simón Bolívar

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat
    Albert Shagnastier's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Last Online
    22-03-2015 @ 09:09 PM
    Location
    City of Angels
    Posts
    7,164
    Jasmine and Basmati - both excellent.

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat
    Mid's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    1,411
    Thailand "loses rank of world's top rice exporter"
    04 January 2013

    A Thai worker holds rice at the Asian Peninsula Corporation Limited factory in Bangkok, Thailand.
    (AFP/ Nicolas Asfouri)

    BANGKOK:
    Thailand lost its status as the world's top rice exporter in 2012 as a controversial scheme to boost farmer incomes saw it overtaken by India and Vietnam, an industry group said Friday.

    Thailand exported 6.9 million tonnes of rice last year, falling behind India which shipped 9.5 million tonnes and Vietnam which sold 7.8 million tonnes overseas, according to the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

    Thai exports slumped 35 percent from the 2011 level of about 10.6 million tonnes, based on the group's figures.

    "We had been the champion since 1980, for 31 years, but we lost the top spot in 2012," the group's honorary president Chookiat Ophaswongse told AFP.

    He said the figures from the rival exporters were based on data from Vietnam's rice industry and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

    Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's more than one-year-old policy to buy rice from farmers for 50 percent more than the market price, while popular with the rural poor has hit the competitiveness of Thai exports.

    "Now Thai rice is $130-150 per tonne more expensive than our competitors. That's why our exports have fallen as no customer can buy from us," said Chookiat.

    "Exporters should change their jobs because they can't survive. Rice has become a political issue now," he said.

    The kingdom produces about 20 million tonnes of the grain annually on average, about half of which was sold overseas in the past.

    Chookiat estimated that Thailand now has about 12-13 million tonnes of stock in storage and predicted that by the third quarter of 2012 this rice mountain will have grown to about 20 million tonnes.

    While the scheme is putting strains on Thailand's government finances, it has been welcomed by many farmers, whose support helped sweep Yingluck to a landslide election victory last year.

    Her older brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted as prime minister by royalist generals in a coup in 2006, is hugely popular in rural Thailand thanks to his populist policies while in power.

    The government has said it is confident that it can find buyers for its rice on world markets at a price that will raise the living standards of its farmers. It says it has signed deals to sell rice directly to other countries.

    channelnewsasia.com

  4. #4
    Banned

    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Last Online
    03-06-2014 @ 09:01 PM
    Posts
    27,545
    Quote Originally Posted by Albert Shagnastier View Post
    Jasmine and Basmati - both excellent.
    Yep.
    And beyond that, there are numerous varieties and partucular strains among both.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •