Mumbai: Rice market fundamentals continue to tighten; and therefore, there is unlikely to be any respite from firm prices anytime soon. World rice prices were about 17 per cent higher in 2007 compared with the previous year.
Export prices that began to escalate in the last quarter of 2007 are expected to continue their northward journey in the first quarter of 2008.
Prospects for the next few months point to further price gains at least until March 2008 when new rice supplies will become available from the 2007 secondary crops in northern hemisphere countries and from the first 2008 paddy crops in the southern hemisphere countries, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in its latest rice market monitor.
Until then, prices are expected to make further inroads, especially after several countries took action either to restrict exports or to facilitate imports, experts at the agency pointed out.
Although it would be too early to suggest anything about 2008 crop prospects, what is becoming increasingly clear is that prices are likely to be more volatile in 2008 in the context of reduced stocks in major exporting countries such as Thailand.
• Quarterly results of corporates: Check out
A general strengthening of the grains prices, driven largely by bio-fuels sector and weather aberrations, would lift rice prices during the course of the year.
FAO forecast of world rice trade in 2008 is 30.2 million tonnes (mt), one per cent higher than in 2007 (29.9 mt which itself was 2.4 per cent higher than 29.2 mt in 2006).
On Indian rice situation, the FAO’s rice production forecast for 2007-08 stands at 140 mt of paddy, one per cent above 2006 official estimate of 139.1 mt. In terms of milled rice, the kharif 2007 saw production of 80.15 mt (virtually unchanged from 2006) and the Rabi crop has been targeted at 13.0 mt.
Concerned over rising prices and to ensure public agencies procured sufficient quantities of rice at reasonable prices, the Government imposed a minimum export price of $425 a tonne on non-basmati rice, which was later raised to $500 a tonne. The move has pre-empted export of low priced rice.
FAO has lowered India’s export forecast for 2008 by one mt to 3.6 mt, about 9 per cent lower than in 2007.
Export prices that began to escalate in the last quarter of 2007 are expected to continue their northward journey in the first quarter of 2008.
Prospects for the next few months point to further price gains at least until March 2008 when new rice supplies will become available from the 2007 secondary crops in northern hemisphere countries and from the first 2008 paddy crops in the southern hemisphere countries, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in its latest rice market monitor.
Until then, prices are expected to make further inroads, especially after several countries took action either to restrict exports or to facilitate imports, experts at the agency pointed out.
Although it would be too early to suggest anything about 2008 crop prospects, what is becoming increasingly clear is that prices are likely to be more volatile in 2008 in the context of reduced stocks in major exporting countries such as Thailand.
• Quarterly results of corporates: Check out
A general strengthening of the grains prices, driven largely by bio-fuels sector and weather aberrations, would lift rice prices during the course of the year.
FAO forecast of world rice trade in 2008 is 30.2 million tonnes (mt), one per cent higher than in 2007 (29.9 mt which itself was 2.4 per cent higher than 29.2 mt in 2006).
On Indian rice situation, the FAO’s rice production forecast for 2007-08 stands at 140 mt of paddy, one per cent above 2006 official estimate of 139.1 mt. In terms of milled rice, the kharif 2007 saw production of 80.15 mt (virtually unchanged from 2006) and the Rabi crop has been targeted at 13.0 mt.
Concerned over rising prices and to ensure public agencies procured sufficient quantities of rice at reasonable prices, the Government imposed a minimum export price of $425 a tonne on non-basmati rice, which was later raised to $500 a tonne. The move has pre-empted export of low priced rice.
FAO has lowered India’s export forecast for 2008 by one mt to 3.6 mt, about 9 per cent lower than in 2007.
No comments:
Post a Comment