Thursday, December 11, 2014

12 December (Friday),2014 Daily Exclusive ORYZA RICE E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

Thailand to sell rice at prices competitive with Vietnam
VietNamNet Bridge – Hai Quan newspaper has quoted foreign sources who say that Thailand will sell both newly harvested and inventoried rice at low prices. This will create challenges for Vietnam, which competes with other rice exporters by offering low prices.

“Reasonable prices are the biggest competitive advantage of Vietnamese rice. But now, if Thailand also sells rice cheap, the Vietnamese competitiveness will not work,” an analyst commented.Dat Viet commented that Vietnam several times has failed in international bids, even though it offered very low prices to obtain contracts.Nguyen Ngoc De from Can Tho University commented that this was a result of the “sell cheap, buy cheap” policy pursued by Vietnamese exporters.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh has urged relevant units to carry out surveys to discover how the Thai policy would affect Vietnam.In late November, the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) unexpectedly lowered the floor export price to $380 from $410 per ton for 25 percent broken rice.Vo Tong Xuan, the leading rice expert in Vietnam, commented that the move shows the Vietnamese exporters’ intention to speed up the sale of rice in the world market.However, Xuan noted this is not good news for farmers, because when exporters sell rice cheaply, they will not pay farmers high prices for rice.Analysts noted that while Vietnamese enterprises are busy selling stocked rice in order to balance the export volume in the last months of the year, Thai exporters have used the time to gain the Malaysian, Indonesian, Chinese, Filipino and African markets.They said that the competition will be stiffer for Vietnamese exporters, who have to compete with Thailand, India, Pakistan and Cambodia.

In 2014, Cambodia’s PhkaRomdoul for the third consecutive time is recognized as the most delicious rice in the world. Cambodia has made big progress from an unknown rice producer to a big rice exporter in the world.A report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) showed that Vietnam exported 443,000 tons in November, worth $217 million, raising total export volume in the last 11 months to 6.03 million tons, worth $2.79 billion.The average export price was $460.9 per ton, an increase of 4.61 percent over the same period last year.According to the National Steering Committee on Rice Export Regulation, the demand is still high with big importers in the region trying to increase imports.Meanwhile, some key markets continue making transactions. China, for example, still tops the list of Vietnam’s rice biggest importers, which consumes 31.1 percent of Vietnam’s exports.
Dat Viet

Commerce Ministry prepares to sell stockpiled rice in Africa and Middle East
Published on Thursday, 11 December 2014 20:03

A paddy field in Hpa-an, Kayin State. (Photo-Aung Zaw Htun/EMG)
A policy to explore foreign rice markets and to ensure the product quality is currently in the pipeline, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
“We’ve just started drawing it. The team responsible for this was formed very recently. It’s a trade-related policy. The Export Strategy (NES) focuses particularly on exports. But the rice policy comprises manufacturing processes as well. In addition, we will prioritise drawing a rice export policy,” said Dr Maung Aung, an advisor to the ministry.These policies are meant to make rice exporting more consistent and to maintain the quality of Myanmar rice exports.Ministry officials are working under the guidance of the Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) and other relevant organisations.Dr Min Aung, a senior advisor at the MRF, urged the quick drafting process.
“Some procedures in rice industry need to be relaxed. Rice merchants face difficulties, like losing market demand. On the other hand, the farmers also struggle with price drops and quality control problems. I advised the government to draw a policy that can relieve the anxieties of both farmers and merchants,” Dr Min Aung suggested.As agriculture is the central pillar of Myanmar’s export economy, a policy that solves all the challenges such as growing local consumption, swelling foreign exports, quality assurance and maintaining a sustainable paddy industry is urgently needed.“Domestic consumption is the first priority. The livelihoods of farmers, merchants and each and every individual involved in the rice business is the second-most important point,” said Tin Htut Oo, a presidential economic advisor.
The supply chain from the paddy field to the platter should be consistent under a policy, the presidential advisor said.“But such a policy is not available yet.”The NES, which is meant to enhance the quality and quantity of exports, is set to be released late this year. It allocates rice, beans, fishery products, wood-based materials and garments as the country’s highest potential export products.“The [rice] policy is currently being drafted. It is important and also related to the export strategy. Besides export process, domestic consumption and prices are also needed to be considered. It takes a well-built policy to make sure the whole supply chain grows strong,” said Win Myint, the director of Department of Trade Promotion under the Commerce Ministry. 
New paddy variety developed for Bihar's rain deficient areas

Patna, Dec 11 (IANS): Scientists in Bihar have developed a new paddy variety for rain deficient areas. It is likely to help millions of farmers in the state's drought-prone areas."A team of scientists at Bihar Agriculture University (BAU) at Sabour in Bhagalpur district, have developed a new variety of paddy for rain-deficient areas," Vice Chancellor M.L. Choudhary said Thursday.Choudhary said the aerobic variety is named Sabour Ardhjal and requires less water compared to other varieties."This variey will require 50 percent less irrigation compared to other paddy varieties," he said.
Choudhary said that the outcome of the first trial of new variety in rain deficient areas in Munger, Patna, Gaya, Banka, Jehanabad, Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura, Nalanda districts was satisfactory.Millions of farmers in Bihar have been hit by consecutive droughts in the state in last five years. Last year the government declared 33 of 38 districts as drought-hit. The state recorded 25 percent deficit in its annual rainfall.After attaining record paddy production of over 80 lakh tonnes in the 2012 kharif season, Bihar harvested around 50 lakh tonnes of paddy in 2013 as poor rains in July-August badly hit paddy transplantation.Rice production in Bihar was 36.4 lakh tonnes in 2009-10 which increased to 81.87 lakh tonnes in 2011-12 and 87 lakh tonnes in 2012-13.

Finding rice traits that tackle climate-change challenges

by Ann Perry
Ann Perry
Cultivated rice competing with weedy red rice (the taller plants among the rows) near Stuttgart, Arkansas. ARS scientists are examining weedy red rice for characteristics that could be used to adapt cultivated rice to climate change.
People around the world depend on food crops adapted to an array of temperature and precipitation regimes, but those conditions are in flux because of global climate change. So scientists want to identify plant traits that could be used to develop food-crop cultivars that thrive despite—or perhaps because of—shifts in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, water availability, and air temperature. As part of this effort, Agricultural Research Service plant physiologists Lewis Ziska, Martha Tomecek, and David Gealy conducted a study of several rice cultivars to determine whether changes of temperature and CO2 levels affected seed yields.
They also looked for visible traits that could signal whether a plant cultivar has the genetic potential for adapting successfully to elevated CO2 levels.For their study, the scientists included weedy red rice, which infests cultivated rice cropland. Despite the plant's downside, previous assessments indicated that weedy rice growing under elevated CO2 levels had higher seed yields than cultivated rice growing under the same conditions.
The scientists used environmental growth chambers to study genetically diverse rice cultivars at current and future projections of atmospheric CO2 and a range of day/night air temperatures. They observed that on average, all the rice cultivars put out more aboveground biomass at elevated CO2 levels, although this response diminished as air temperatures rose.
For seed yield, only weedy rice and the rice cultivar Rondo responded to elevated CO2 levels when grown at optimal day/night air temperatures of 84 °F and 70 °F. The researchers were also intrigued by an additional observation: Only weedy rice gained significant increases of aboveground biomass and seed yield under elevated CO2 levels at the higher temperatures expected for rice-growing regions by the middle of the century.
In Beltsville, Maryland, plant physiologists Lewis Ziska and Martha Tomecek examine the response of different rice cultivars to changes in carbon dioxide and temperature. ARS scientists at Beltsville and Stuttgart, Arkansas, are working to …more .When Ziska and colleagues analyzed the study data for the weedy rice, they observed that seed-yield increases under elevated CO2 resulted from an increase in panicle (seed head) and tiller production. Tillers are stalks put out by a growing rice plant, and as the plant matures, the seed heads—where rice grain is produced—develop at the end of the tillers.
Since rice tiller production is determined in part by a plant's genetic makeup, crop breeders might someday be able to use this weedy rice trait to develop commercial rice cultivars that can convert rising CO2 levels into higher seed yields. To the researchers, these findings also suggest that the weedy, feral cousins of cultivated cereals could have other traits that would be useful in adapting to the environmental challenges that may come with climate change.
"We know that atmospheric CO2 and air temperatures will increase together," says Ziska. "Ideally, we can develop plants that respond well to elevated CO2 levels and incorporate traits that favor plant survival despite temperature changes." Explore further: Rice yield increase of 30 percent enabled by use of a photosynthesis 'switch,' researchers learn

http://phys.org/news/2014-12-rice-traits-tackle-climate-change.html


Mexico Re-imposing Import Duty on Asian Milled Rice
 
Advantage:  U.S. rice
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO -- Yesterday, the Government of Mexico (GOM) announced a re-imposition of a 20 percent duty on Asian rice to begin on vessels arriving after January 10, 2015.The GOM removed the long-standing duty on grains from all origins back in 2008 as a way to reduce the price of basic commodities to its population.  With cheap prices and zero duty, Asian rice began to enter Mexico, and by 2013 and 2014 imports had skyrocketed, cutting into the traditional U.S. market for paddy and milled rice. The U.S. market share for milled rice, once more than 95 percent has fallen this year to 34 percent.  Vietnam and Thailand are the primary origins making inroads today.  Pakistan, once a player, can no longer export to Mexico due to phytosanitary issues.
 "Local traders, packers, and millers we've spoken with believe the first few months of 2015 will present great opportunities for the sale of U.S. rice to Mexico, given our large high-quality crop and the new import duty on Asian origin rice," said Betsy Ward, USA Rice Federation's president and CEO.Ward went on to point out that the competitive advantage could end up being short-lived if the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is signed in 2015. "Mexico is anxious to conclude TPP talks, and as it looks now, Vietnamese rice would gain back some or all of its duty advantage under that agreement," she said. USA Rice is monitoring this situation very closely and will keep members up to date on events as they transpire.

Contact:  Jim Guinn (703) 236-1474


USA Rice's The Whole Grain Newspaper Launched 
 
LITTLE ROCK, AR -- The USA Rice Federation debuted a new publication at the 2014 Outlook Conference here this week to take the place of the organization's traditional annual report.  The Whole Grain is a full-color 16 page tabloid-style newspaper that will be published quarterly and distributed widely to the U.S. rice industry.Outlook Conference attendees received a copy of the newspaper in their welcome packets, and more than 23,000 copies were mailed to growers, landowners, and others affiliated with the rice industry. 
The cover story for this first edition of The Whole Grain was an in-depth look at the Mexican market - the top destination for U.S.-grown rice.  Other stories included interviews with USA Rice Federation Chairman Dow Brantley, and president and CEO Betsy Ward; the recent rice export victory in Iraq; the ground-breaking stewardship partnership between USA Rice and Ducks Unlimited, an update on the regulatory landscape, and several articles on the group's domestic promotions work, including how nutrition policy has enhanced sales opportunities for rice.

Michael Klein, USA Rice vice president of marketing and communications said, "Our goal in switching up the format of the annual report in favor of the tabloid is to provide more engaging content to our members, and to go deeper into important issues than we can here in the Daily.  We're looking forward to expanding our coverage, our circulation, and offering advertising opportunities in future issues." To receive additional copies of the tabloid to distribute in your community, please contactDeborah Willenborg at (703) 236-1444.






Weekly Rice Sales, Exports Reported        

WASHINGTON, DC -- Net rice sales of 86,800 MT for 2014/2015 were reported for Haiti (29,300 MT), Libya (28,800 MT), Japan (13,000 MT), Honduras (12,000 MT, including 8,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), and Guatemala (5,000 MT), according to today's Export Sales Highlights report.  
Decreases were reported for unknown destinations (8,000 MT).  Exports of 110,300 MT--a marketing-year high--were up 71 percent from the previous week and 43 percent from the prior four-week average.  The primary destinations were Libya (28,800 MT), Haiti (23,700 MT), Japan (21,600 MT), Colombia (13,300 MT), and Honduras (8,500 MT). This summary is based on reports from exporters from the period November 28 - 
December 4.


CME Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures   
CME Group (Prelim):  Closing Rough Rice Futures for December 11

Month
Price
Net Change

January 2015
$12.085
- $0.175
March 2015
$12.355
- $0.155
May 2015
$12.625
- $0.135
July 2015
$12.825
- $0.135
September 2015
$12.185
- $0.050
November 2015
$12.110
- $0.025
January 2016
$12.110
- $0.025

 

No ‘silver bullet’ in the 2014 farm bill

Dec 10, 2014Forrest Laws | Delta Farm Press
Most farmers are gamblers at heart. They risk everything when they plant their crops in the spring in the hope they will be rewarded at harvest.But growers should not “bet the farm” when they sign up for the Agricultural Act of 2014, says Greg Cole, president and chief executive officer at AgHeritage Farm Credit Services, which is based in Little Rock, Ark.“Don’t look for a silver bullet in this farm bill because it’s not there,” said Cole, who was one of the speakers for a panel discussion on “The 2014 Farm Bill: What You Need to Know” at the USA Rice Outlook Conference in Little Rock.“Here’s the key thing in making your selection,” said Cole, referring to the complex options available under the new law. “Try to look at it from a more global basis in terms of what can you live with and what can you not. Here’s the most important thing you can walk away with: Don’t bet your farm on this farm bill safety net to make your decision.”Cole, who also spoke at the annual Rice Outlook Conference following the passage of the 2008 farm bill, said he believes this farm bill is much more complex and less forgiving when producers make a mistake in signing up for the programs.“I said this many times when we journeyed through the farm bill debate and I attended many meetings representing Farm Credit: The curtailment or elimination of direct payments will affect the rice industry of eastern Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta more than anywhere else,” he said.
Direct payments
“Obviously, you as a producer liked the direct payments and we as ag lenders liked it, too, because you knew how much you were going to get, when you were going to get it and it was timed to be in cycle with that crop. Now the world has changed. We’re dealing with a lower safety net, a radically different structure having more of an insurance counter-cyclical feature and a shallow loss concept.”
RELATED
There’s no doubt the provisions of the Agricultural Act of 2014 are more complex than previous farm bills. Cole and panelists Dr. Joe Outlaw, co-director of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University, and William Cole, a crop insurance agent from Batesville, Miss., who chairs the Crop Insurance Professionals Association, encouraged farmers to seek help in making their decisions.“You have to live with the decision for the life of the farm bill though the pricing environment will change over that time, and you’re making year-to-year crop loans,” said Greg Cole.
 “These payments will be hard to quantify, they’re paid in arrears or after the fact and will actually be paid when you’re almost ending the next crop.”Because of the complexity, he said, ag lenders will need to evaluate credit requests on a more individual basis and look at many aspects to determine the borrower’s risk-bearing ability, Cole noted.“Consideration will need to be given to the safety net selection in concert with the crop insurance selection and the overall marketing plan and all this has to be interfaced in with the provider’s lending capacity. No doubt the complexity will increase for the borrower and for the ag lender.”In the days ahead, the key to success may well be making the best uses of the resources available and making the best decisions, he noted.
“There’s good decision tools like Joe (Outlaw) alluded to, the online tools that are available, the interface with crop insurance agents, peer groups and other key folks.Cole urged farmers not to risk everything on the safety net in the new law. “Don’t allow the government to keep you in business for this is only one component of a whole menu of risk management tools that you have in your operation and your overall management equation.
Producer CEOs
“You as agricultural producers are owners of your business, you’re CEOs. You have full responsibility and accountability. And as I talked about the migration of the intellectual business model, your success will be directly tied to the people you surround yourself with to either influence your decision or make the decision.”Those can be people like your accountant, your agronomist, your tax consultant, your FSA representative, your ag lender. “Again, the goal is to build the intellectual capital to generate the financial capital,” said Cole.
If they don’t already have the information, Cole urged growers to determine their cost of production, both variable and fixed and on a per-acre or per-bushel or pound basis.“My observation is that many producers are not strong in that area,” he said. “You need to look at your total cost structure. Are you growing paychecks and payments greater than acres? Do you have a focused scale for your operation?”Cole said his organization is already reviewing loans for 2015 and finding that some growers are losing money, some are breaking even and some are making a little money following the general downturn in prices of recent months.
“I asked what’s the difference there?” he said. “It’s in that fixed cost, and looking at the total amount of payments that you’ve got, your living costs and those variables. Knowing your numbers is going to be critical.”
What can it do for you?
“Each producer has to step back and ask ‘what do you want this farm bill to do for you?’” said Outlaw. “For many years our producers have used the direct payments because they were steady, and you knew what was going to happen. People were using those as a gigantic crutch.“That’s just me being me. If I made you mad, I’m sorry. But the reality is we’ve got to decide what we’re going to use in this farm bill. A lot of producers are saying I’m going to take whatever I can get the most money for the fastest because that’s the way I feel about this, and I don’t know if we’re going to get anything else.
“Others are saying I need to know that if things get to a certain level of bad prices I’m going to have that safety net provided by the government. Each person has to step back and make that decision for themselves.”Outlaw noted that farmers can enter a wide range of prices in the new farm bill decision aid tool developed by the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M. “I’m suggesting that people put in the prices that if they happen, farmers don’t want to have to go see their lender if this happens. Those are the prices I want to analyze not high prices that don’t matter because you’re not going to get anything.”
For more information and to see the new decision aid, visit www.usda.gov/farmbill.

Source with thnaks: http://deltafarmpress.com/government/no-silver-bullet-2014-farm-bill?utm_source=USA+Rice+Daily%2C+December+11%2C+2014&utm_campaign=Friday%2C+December+13%2C+2013&utm_medium=email

Contents are published with permission of ORYZA.com

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