BaDaR
30th March 2008, 18:31
RIYADH, March 29: With India and Vietnam, the two major rice exporting countries, opting to restrain their rice exports, Pakistani rice exporters could re-enter the regional markets in a big way, experts here think.
India has been the major rice exporter to Saudi Arabia for last many years. The country has also been procuring rice from Pakistan, the United States and Thailand. Pakistani basmati is believed to be preferred in the Eastern Province. In the Western Province of the Kingdom, there is a preference for parboiled rice. The United States and Egypt are among other countries exporting rice to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabian annual rice imports are in excess of one million tons. India currently holds roughly 70 per cent of this market, but this could be in for a major change in view of the recent Indian restriction on exports. Pakistan could be a major beneficiary, re-entering the lost Saudi market in a big way, if proper incentives are provided.
Pakistan’s share of the market today stands roughly at 11 per cent. A decade ago, Pakistan was holding 50 per cent rice market of Saudi Arabia. In recent years, Pakistani exporters have been endeavouring for a 25 per cent share of the Saudi rice market within the next few years, expanding it to 50pc ultimately.
Reports here indicate that India has raised the minimum sale price for rice exports by more than 50 per cent, effectively ending overseas sales of all but the highest quality grades. India has raised the minimum export price for non-basmati rice to $1,000 per ton from $650 to protect domestic supplies. It also scrapped tax incentives for exporters of non-basmati rice to tame price pressures in local markets.
India traditionally exports about 4 million tons of rice a year. “And this year they just stopped, so that 4 million tons out of a market of say 29 million tons was removed,” analysts said, adding to the tight global supply scenario of the staple grain.
A couple of days back, Hanoi confirmed also it would cut rice exports by 22 per cent this year. In Vietnam, consumer prices rose by nearly 20 per cent in March, the highest in more than 12 years, while India’s wholesale price inflation has surged to a near 14-month high, posing a major policy challenge at a time when economic growth is slowing.
Vietnam, the world’s second-biggest rice exporter, will limit shipments to 3.5 million tons; down from 4.5 million tons last year, to stabilise local prices, a government statement quoted Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung as saying after Hanoi imposed a limit for the first 10-month shipment last week.
Vietnam exported 859,000 tons of rice in the first three months of this year, up by 5.3 per cent from a year earlier, government figures show.
“Vietnam will save 1 million tons of rice for Northern provinces and will see prices easing following this cut,” rice traders in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest grain trading market, were reported as saying.
Egypt said earlier this week it would also ban rice exports from April 1 to October, so as to hold down local prices. In the meantime, owing to shortages felt in the local market, the Philippines aims to import up to 2.2 million tons this year in what could be the biggest overseas purchase in a decade.
http://www.dawn.com/2008/03/30/ebr7.htm
India has been the major rice exporter to Saudi Arabia for last many years. The country has also been procuring rice from Pakistan, the United States and Thailand. Pakistani basmati is believed to be preferred in the Eastern Province. In the Western Province of the Kingdom, there is a preference for parboiled rice. The United States and Egypt are among other countries exporting rice to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabian annual rice imports are in excess of one million tons. India currently holds roughly 70 per cent of this market, but this could be in for a major change in view of the recent Indian restriction on exports. Pakistan could be a major beneficiary, re-entering the lost Saudi market in a big way, if proper incentives are provided.
Pakistan’s share of the market today stands roughly at 11 per cent. A decade ago, Pakistan was holding 50 per cent rice market of Saudi Arabia. In recent years, Pakistani exporters have been endeavouring for a 25 per cent share of the Saudi rice market within the next few years, expanding it to 50pc ultimately.
Reports here indicate that India has raised the minimum sale price for rice exports by more than 50 per cent, effectively ending overseas sales of all but the highest quality grades. India has raised the minimum export price for non-basmati rice to $1,000 per ton from $650 to protect domestic supplies. It also scrapped tax incentives for exporters of non-basmati rice to tame price pressures in local markets.
India traditionally exports about 4 million tons of rice a year. “And this year they just stopped, so that 4 million tons out of a market of say 29 million tons was removed,” analysts said, adding to the tight global supply scenario of the staple grain.
A couple of days back, Hanoi confirmed also it would cut rice exports by 22 per cent this year. In Vietnam, consumer prices rose by nearly 20 per cent in March, the highest in more than 12 years, while India’s wholesale price inflation has surged to a near 14-month high, posing a major policy challenge at a time when economic growth is slowing.
Vietnam, the world’s second-biggest rice exporter, will limit shipments to 3.5 million tons; down from 4.5 million tons last year, to stabilise local prices, a government statement quoted Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung as saying after Hanoi imposed a limit for the first 10-month shipment last week.
Vietnam exported 859,000 tons of rice in the first three months of this year, up by 5.3 per cent from a year earlier, government figures show.
“Vietnam will save 1 million tons of rice for Northern provinces and will see prices easing following this cut,” rice traders in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest grain trading market, were reported as saying.
Egypt said earlier this week it would also ban rice exports from April 1 to October, so as to hold down local prices. In the meantime, owing to shortages felt in the local market, the Philippines aims to import up to 2.2 million tons this year in what could be the biggest overseas purchase in a decade.
http://www.dawn.com/2008/03/30/ebr7.htm