Asian rice markets slow due to poor demand
December
02, 2014
Trading on Asian rice markets was slow this week due to a lack of
demand, with prices in Thailand stable but the Vietnamese market hitting
multi-month lows after the official floor price was cut, traders said on
Wednesday. Buyers may not return to Vietnam until early next year before the
country begins harvesting its main crop in March, while traders in Thailand
said buyers there were waiting for new sales from the government's huge stocks
of an estimated 18 million tonnes. Thailand
and Vietnam together account for 40 percent of the world's rice trade. Just a
tenth of Thailand's huge stockpiles built up under a government ousted in May
is of standard export quality, while the rest is either inedible or
deteriorating.
Thai 5 percent broken rice was quoted at $410 a tonne on
Wednesday, free on board (FOB), leaving it down 2.4 percent so far this month
under pressure from the government stocks. "The
government should really focus on selling rice from its stockpiles," one
Thai trader said, although he noted that Africa was the only market for the old
rice, while countries in the Middle East and Asia always asked for fresh grain.
Vietnam's 5 percent broken rice fell nearly 5 percent in the past week to
$390-$395 a tonne, the lowest since April 7, after the floor price for the 25
percent broken grain was cut to $380 a tonne. This
is the first time in more than three months that Vietnamese prices have dropped
below those of Thai grain. Buyers were turning to Pakistan, while China was
slowing its purchase from Vietnam, which has added to the downward pressure on
Vietnamese prices, traders in Ho Chi Minh City said.
Vietnam exported an estimated 6.09 million tonnes of rice in the
first 11 months of the year, down 1.8 percent from a year earlier, the General
Statistics Office said on Wednesday. Its estimate is slightly above that of the
agriculture ministry at 6.03 million. Thailand
could export 10 million tonnes of rice this year, far ahead of Vietnam's
projected shipments of 6.3 million to 6.5 million, according to traders'
estimates. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha will visit Vietnam on Thursday
to discuss support measures for rice and rubber with top Vietnamese government
officials, the Thai government said on Tuesday.
Taiwan: Taiwan Lifts Longstanding Ban on U.S. Long Grain Rice
and Schedules Tender
December 1, 2014
Attaché Reports (GAIN)
Commodities
Grain and Feed, Rice
Taiwan authorities recently
lifted a ban on U.S. long grain rice, in place since 2006. Council
of Agriculture authorities scheduled a tender of 3,000 MT of U.S. long
grain brown rice for December 10.
Importers from 15 countries meet Thai exporters
Tuesday, 02 December 2014
The importers are inspecting factories and production lines that
meet international standards. The minister hopes their arrival will ensure a
bright prospect for Thai exports next year and afterwards.The Department of
International Trade Promotion is planning its export strategies for 2015,
intending to finish the plan within this month.Despite the unpromising global
economy, the department is trying to maintain existing markets and reach new
and potential markets so that the value of Thai exports will rise by 4 per cent
next year as targeted.
Watch Video by clicking the next link:
source with thanks: http://www.pattayamail.com/business/importers-from-15-countries-meet-thai-exporters-43310#sthash.fCmTjnKm.dpuf
Payouts for rice farmers expected to
help increase GDP by 0.6%
Date : 2 ธันวาคม 2557
BANGKOK, 2 December 2014 (NNT) - The Office of Agricultural
Economics has evaluated the government’s 1,000 baht/Rai financial assistance
for rice farmers, saying the program helped stimulate the economy by increasing
the GDP by 0.6%. Deputy Secretary-General of the Office of Agricultural
Economics Khanit Likhitwitthayawut said the office conducted a survey on how
the rice farmers in Lop Buri, one in the eight provinces where the rice farmers
were paid first, spent their 1,000 baht/Rai payouts. The survey showed that
most of the farmers were satisfied with the program and each household received
13,500 baht on average. 68% of them spent the money on factors of production
and 17% repaid their debt with it, said the official.
The survey also suggested that the program contributed an increase
in the prices of factors of production by 3-5%. The deputy director-general
added that the program would help raise Thailand’s GDP by 0.6% or 90 billion
baht after all 40 billion baht of the financial assistance was paid to the
farmers.
Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu directs
paddy farmers to be paid within 48 hours
Tuesday, 2 December 2014 - 10:04pm IST | Place: Hyderabad |
Agency: PTI
The Andhra Pradesh government plans to set up 1,069 paddy
purchase centres across the state. About 100 centres have been established in
West Godavari district alone until December 1, while 16,973 metric tonne of
paddy has been purchased so far.Naidu also suggested that paddy harvesters and
dryers be made available at paddy purchase centres. Details of paddy
purchases should be posted online and the women self-help groups should be
given tablets for the purpose, Naidu said.
The chief minister also told irrigation officials to complete
linking Krishna and Godavari rivers expeditiously since the Centre has given
importance to the linking of rivers. Naidu, who held a seperate review of
irrigation issues also directed that the multi-purpose Polavaram Irrigation
project be completed by 2018.Engineers in the state should take this as a
challenge and "create history", Naidu said.Bhopal
Gas Tragedy: 350 tonnes of waste and factory deaths that no one even counts -
See more at:
Bhopal Gas Tragedy: 350 tonnes of waste and factory deaths that no
one even counts
The abandoned Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. (Source: Reuters)
Written by Anil Sasi |
Bhopal/new Delhi | Posted: December 2, 2014 4:09 am | Updated: December 2, 2014
3:53 pm
There have been many blips across the country since, including one
just 18 km away from Bhopal where 500 tonnes of Basmati rice went up in flames
at Mandideep industrial area on June 8 this year.
Victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy take part in a candle lit vigil
to mark the 30th anniversary of the tragedy in Bhopal on Sunday. (Source: PTI
Photo)
M K Varshney, Principal Secretary in Madhya Pradesh’s Department
of Labour, told The Indian Express that incidents take place despite the
administration’s best efforts and repeated mock tests on factories and units
conducted by senior officers in the state government’s labour and industrial
safety wings, including Varshney himself.
Source with thanks: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/350-tonnes-of-waste-and-factory-deaths-that-no-one-even-counts/#sthash.q08rufqL.dpuf
Arkansas cotton and rice crops expected
to finish strong
Farmers get
relief from rice diseases in 2014
Disease in rice was
not as big of a problem in 2014 for most growers as in previous years, according
to LSU AgCenter plant pathologist Don Groth.“With as much rain as we had,
sheath blight wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” he said.The cold winter of
2013-14 could have played a role in the low incidence of disease, Groth said,
but the mild disease year can also be attributed to the direct result of
breeding efforts that have selected for disease resistance.That selection took
place through several years. “We have a lot fewer very susceptible and
susceptible lines in our nurseries, and resistance is being increased in the
breeding process,” he said.Current high yields would not be possible without
disease resistance, he said.
Lowcountry
Rice Wine Edges Toward a Revival
Carolina Gold, South Carolina's prized heirloom rice, is
being revived in restaurants and kitchens around the South. But what about the
long-extinct tradition of making wine from it? Hanna Raskin on the first
attempts to revive Carolina Gold rice wine.
But in the days when Carolina Gold was central to the economies of
South Carolina and Georgia, creating enormous fortunes for landholders and
shaping a slave trade that would forever scar two continents, the long-grain
rice wasn’t treated so fastidiously. It was served three times a day in
18th-century plantation households in the form of breads, waffles, soups,
fritters, bean salads and seafood stews. Enslaved Africans grew Carolina Gold
in their subsistence gardens, using the nutty, chewy rice to pad dishes of
trapped game, fish and entrails salvaged from hog butchering sessions.
Odisha mulls
incentives to boost rice processing
The Odisha government
proposes to provide incentives for setting up of integrated rice processing mills
having facilities to produce rice bran oil and
rice husk power using surplus rice available in the state.The state has been
producing around 8 million tonne (mt) rice every year and roughly 60 per cent of
it is processed at domestic mills, while rest are transported to other states,
either for onward shipment to other countries or for consumption there.Some
portion of the output is processed domestically by households.
Taiwan Opens
Market for U.S. Long Grain Rice
TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- The
American Institute of Taiwan's Agricultural Affairs Office reported that Taiwan
authorities have lifted the longstanding ban on U.S. long grain rice. Taiwan imposed an import ban on U.S. long
grain rice immediately after the LibertyLink® incident in August 2006. Since then, the issue has been raised in
several bilateral engagements by the U.S. side, both technically and under the
Trade and Investment Framework Agreement annual meetings.Taiwan's Agriculture
and Food Agency has also scheduled two tenders of U.S.-origin long grain brown
rice for December 10, with delivery in the May-June 2015 time frame. This will be the first U.S. long grain rice
tender since Taiwan joined the WTO in January 2002 and opened its market for
rice imports.
One tender (1,500 MT) has a specification for
minimum amylose content. It is presumed
this will be destined for making popular local products such as rice noodles
and rice cakes. The long grain rice without minimum amylose content
specifications will likely be used as table rice."Reportedly, consumer
appetites in Taiwan are changing," said Jim Guinn, USA Rice Federation
vice president of international promotion.
"They seem to be more accepting of long grain products in addition
to the medium and short grain that is traditionally consumed there. Taiwan also recently purchased southern
medium grain rice for the first time in several years."
Contact: Deborah Willenborg (703) 236-1444
|
USTR Appeals
WTO October COOL Rule
|
|
The COOL rule mandates that muscle cuts of meat be
labeled for the country of origin where the animal was born, raised, and
slaughtered, which foreign meat and livestock suppliers claim treats their
goods unfairly. Canada and Mexico brought a complaint against the
United States to the WTO in August 2013. The U.S. decision to appeal the
October ruling is another in a series of steps that will have to occur before
Canada and Mexico are given permission by the WTO to retaliate against imports
from the United States. At this point, retaliation against U.S.
products looks unlikely until the last quarter of 2015, though Canada has
already released a list of U.S. products that would face a 100 percent duty,
including U.S.-grown rice.
"We are obviously watching this issue very closely
because of the potential impact on U.S. rice exports to Canada," said
Bob Cummings, USA Rice Federation COO. "As a member of the COOL Reform Coalition, we are urging the U.S. government to come into
compliance with its WTO obligations so as to avoid retaliation."
|
Source with
thanks USA Rice Federation
|
Taiwan
Announces Long Grain Tenders
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Tender Specifications:
1.
Long grain brown rice
2.
Length of kernel: 6.61 mm~7.5mm, the ratio of
length to width of whole kernel: ≥3.0. Method of test for length and
shape: randomly sample 30 kernels from sound kernels, measure the length and
width of each kernels, then take the average of the measurement. The weight
percentage of out of length standard kernels must be under 30 percent and the
kernels which length less than 6.2 mm must be under 5 percent.
3.
Amylose content: ≥ 24 percent (for Tender
GF4-103-118 only [1,500 MT])
4.
Quantity: 1,500 mt each
|
|
Source
with thanks USA Rice Federation
CME
Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Source with
thanks USA Rice Federation
Arkansas cotton and rice crops expected
to finish strong
Posted: Sunday, November
30, 2014 10:00 am
As the 2014 rice and cotton
harvests draw to a close, a mild summer and fall, coupled with heavy rainfall
throughout the state, appear to have delivered surprisingly high yields for
both rice and cotton.According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service,
Arkansas’ cotton crop was 98 percent harvested, ahead of the five-year average
of 93 percent, and rice harvest was complete, just 1 point ahead of the 99
percent five-year average. Soybeans were near completion at 96 percent.Jarrod
Hardke, an extension rice agronomist for the University of Arkansas System
Division of Agriculture based at Stuttgart, said record low temperatures in
June, July and August in some areas of the state were a strong force in shaping
the 2014 crops.
“That really had a
significant impact on our overall rice crop, and ultimately, our yields,”
Hardke said. He said significant temperature drops can affect rice crops in
different ways depending on when they occur in the plants’ growing cycle.“If
those very stressful, low temperatures occur just after mid-season, that’s
actually the time when those plants are determining how many grains they’re
going to attempt to create to begin with, and how many branches will be on that
panicle,” Hardke said. “If those conditions occur when we begin to head, and at
pollination, it can affect or inhibit pollination — you have a fertility
problem and you can get blanks.
There will be kernels that don’t pollinate,
and don’t fill at all.”The typical window for planting rice throughout the
Arkansas Delta region spans from late March until mid-June, although some
fields in 2014 were planted as early as March 10 and as late as July 8, Hardke
said. Rice harvest is heavily temperature dependent, and can range from
mid-August to early October, or even beyond, he said.Despite several periods of
unusually low overnight summer temperatures, the ag statistics service has
estimated that the state’s 2014 rice yield at 167.3 bushels per acre, just shy
of 2013’s record-breaking 168 bushels per acre average. Hardke said final
harvest numbers released by NASS in January will reflect any last-minute
changes in processing.
Like rice, the state’s
cotton crop may also be headed for another record year in 2014. Extension
Service cotton agronomist Bill Robertson said harvest throughout the state is
nearly 100 percent complete, with a state-wide average yield estimated at 1,137
pounds per acre.“It’s a little surprising,” Robertson said. “We had a rough
start, with a cold winter last year, followed by a cool spring, and we got off
to a late start.”Robertson said heavy rain throughout some areas of the state
early in the season diminished the state’s overall yield, although some fields
had produced between 1,500 and 2,000 per acre.“We had an extremely good, kind
of dry fall, and that really took away the penalty we usually have for having a
late crop,” Robertson said. “A really good fall makes up for a lot of
misfortunes through the year.”
Source with thanks: www.magnoliareporter.com
Farmers get
relief from rice diseases in 2014
By Louisiana State University December 02, 2014 | 11:35 am EST
Bacterial panicle
blight wasn’t bad in 2014, Groth said, because temperatures were moderate, and
blast was not found until late in the growing season. Blast resistance in
variety development was increased with the bad outbreak of the disease in 2012,
and that eliminated many blast-susceptible lines.Out of the almost 800 advanced
lines he evaluated for the disease in 2014, Groth said, only four or five
showed signs of severe blast.Many of the lines susceptible to Cercospora have
also been eliminated. Groth suspects many farmers are spraying for that
disease, even though it may be unnecessary.
It’s likely that
fungicide-resistant sheath blight is continuing its spread in south Louisiana,
he said. “But we have the tools to manage it.”The main line of defense,
Sercadis, should be applied at 6.8 ounces an acre because the lower rate of 4.5
ounces does not last long enough, Groth said. Convoy fungicide also had good
activity against both the wild and resistant sheath blight fungi.Groth tested
six new fungicides in 2014, and he expects that two could be available by 2015
or 2016. “Some of them look really good,” he said.But the new fungicides only
have activity against sheath blight. “We really don’t have any new products for
blast, and that has me worried,” he said.
A generic version of
Quadris Equation will be available in 2015 because the patent on azoxystrobin,
the active ingredient, has expired.Groth will start a study in 2015 to look at
the benefit of fungicide use on currently available, moderately susceptible
varieties compared with not spraying any of the products. Don Groth, LSU AgCenter pathologist, at right,
talks with crop consultant Doug Leonards about disease symptoms during a field
day at the Rice Research Station.
“There is a question
if early-planted moderately-susceptible rice varieties need to be sprayed,”
Groth said. “Somewhere along the line, we need to cut costs in rice production,
and fungicide use is one possible area.”Research on rice diseases is supported
by funds provided through the rice checkoff program. “This program has paid
excellent dividends for 40 plus years and will continue to help the rice industry
in the future,” said Steve Linscombe, director of the Rice Research Station and
the AgCenter’s Southwest Region.
Lowcountry
Rice Wine Edges Toward a Revival
Carolina Gold, South Carolina's prized heirloom rice, is
being revived in restaurants and kitchens around the South. But what about the
long-extinct tradition of making wine from it? Hanna Raskin on the first
attempts to revive Carolina Gold rice wine.
rolina Gold
rice, a lost-and-found Southern food, has come to stand for all that’s true and
good about pre-industrial flavors. So venerated is it in contemporary
Lowcountry cooking that James Beard award winning Charleston chefSean Brock famously
scooped it into a bowl and included it on a $75 tasting menu. Uptown at The Ordinary, fellow
Beard winner Mike Lata turned the rice into pudding and served it after
lobster.
They also subjected the rice to the same treatment
that’s been afforded every grain known to man: They turned it into alcohol.Almost
nothing is known about the production methods of South Carolina rice
wine—there’s little to no documented history of the stuff, and to cap off the
obscurity, the crop itself eventually fell out of favor. When Carolina Gold
edged toward extinction in the early-20th century, a victim of
crossbreeding and the rage for new, modern rice varieties, Carolina Gold rice
wine disappeared along with it. The legendary drink survived only as the
inspiration for rice wine spirituals, sacred songs still remembered in remote
crooks along the Gullah-Geechee Corridor, which roughly parallels Interstate 95
from Wilmington, N.C. to Jacksonville, Florida.
But last month, Merle Sheperd, a Clemson University
etymologist and vice-president of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation—which supports
the repatriation of Carolina Gold and other heirloom grains—came into about 36
bottles of newly made Carolina Gold rice wine. “This may be the first of its
kind,” he wrote in an exclamation point-laden e-mail sent to fellow board
members.Just as in the 19th century,
this rice wine was produced in a make-do spirit (re: by an unlicensed party),
cut with Concord grape juice and aged for about six months. And because federal
agents can’t always be charmed by historical significance into bending the law,
Sheperd doesn’t want to publicly disclose who produced the wine. If the
experimental batch impresses the right people, though, he foresees a future of
successful commercial sales based upon Carolina Gold’s recent revival.
Glenn Roberts of Anson
Mills—the Columbia, S.C.-based company that led the charge to return
Carolina Gold, amongst other grains, from a few saved seeds to a viable
crop—emphasizes that wine isn’t the only rice-based spirit on the horizon.
Since planting his first Carolina Gold rice fields in 1998, Roberts (who
created the foundation) has dreamed of jumpstarting a robust culinary culture
with rice at its core. He wants to drink not only Carolina Gold rice wine, but
Carolina Gold rice beer and Carolina Gold rice whiskey.While half a dozen
brewers across the country have started fooling around with sake (Japan’s
legendary rice-based wine), only one operation—Austin-based Texas Sake whose
Whooping Crane wine medaled twice in competition—announced plans to use locally
grown rice, but personal health issues forced the company’s closure in June.
Could Carolina Gold rice provide the push needed to
establish a U.S. rice wine industry? Sonoko Sakai, a Japanese food culture
advocate and cooking instructor, who first poured the wine for sake experts in
Los Angeles, says her peers weren’t persuaded.Sakai points out that the rice
prized for sake production in Japan isn’t everyday eating rice, so using
Carolina gold rice for wine may be at odds with the goal of mainstreaming the
glorified grain. It’s also difficult to judge its suitability for wine without
testing different levels of polishing, or the milling down of rice husks that
determines sake classification; “that changes the whole equation,” Sakai says.
She also suggests taking the grape juice out of the blend. “That threw us off,
because you don’t really taste the rice,” she says. “It’s like bad plum wine.
But it’s fun; it’s exciting. I just think more experimentation is necessary.”
University of South Carolina professor David Shields,
who functions as the Watson to Roberts’ Holmes, says the taste of antebellum
Carolina Gold rice wine isn’t addressed by historical record. “But we know what
it looked like,” he said at the tasting of the faintly straw-colored, clear
wine. “It looked like this,” he said referring to Sheperd’s bottles.
Having grown up in Japan, Shields is a longtime sake
aficionado: He collects sake cups, and when work takes him to big cities, he
plots his itineraries around sake shop visits. So it makes sense for Shields to
structure his expectation around the world’s most enduring rice wine tradition,
even if sake’s defining koji mold never touches Carolina Gold grains. The
cross-cultural treatment is an enduring reflection of the restless conditions
that defined the Lowcountry’s heyday, when ships bound for Europe were pulling
out of Charleston harbor daily to make way for schooners laden with Indian
spices and Portuguese madeira.
Today, without tasting notes or recipes to guide them,
the Carolina Gold rice team can’t exactly replicate the region’s original rice
wines in the way that, say, crème de violette and Navy-strength gin have been
conjured for the current century. But in the process of playing with flavors,
much as the first Carolina Gold rice growers did, they’re forcefully
demonstrating the value of an heirloom grain and connecting with the past in a
way that brings to life an almost-lost Southern tradition.
Millers
to supply superfine rice to hostels
The rice millers have agreed to the Telangana Government’s
request to make available superfine quality rice such as “BPT and sona masuri”
to all welfare hostels from January 2015.A decision to this effect was taken at
a meeting convened by Commissioner of Civil Supplies C. Partha Sarathi with representatives
of rice millers’ associations and the general managers of the Civil Supplies
Corporation from all districts.Explaining the Chief Minister’s decision to
provide superfine variety rice to hostels, the Commissioner requested the rice
millers to make available the commodity in required quantities. He enquired
from the Civil Supplies Department officials about the allotment and off-take
of rice to hostels and the total quantity required per annum.
Source with thanks:http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/millers-to-supply-superfine-rice-to-hostels/article6655872.ece?homepage=true
Odisha mulls
incentives to boost rice processing
The state has been producing around 8 million tonne rice
every year and roughly 60% of it is processed at domestic mills
BS Reporter
| Bhubaneswar
December 2, 2014 Last Updated at 20:30 IST
To tap the business potential in the rice sector, the government
wants to provide incentives to integrated rice millers."There is no
specific package for funding the rice mills. However, the provisions mentioned
in the Food Processing Policy, 2013 can be applied to investors wanting to set
up rice mills," said Panchanan Dash, state MSME secretary.Recently, at an
event organised by International Finance Corporation (IFC) to explore
investment opportunities in the grain sector, state chief secretary, G C Pati
had said, "Odisha has become a rice exporting state and we need technology
upgradation in existing mills and new mills in urban areas.
"The state government said, all the benefits would be covered
under its food processing policy. The policy ensures five per cent per annum
back-ended interest subsidy on working capital loan for first five years from
commencement of operation of the units subject to a limit of Rs 5 lakh per year
for five years.The move is aimed at developing more rice mills in coastal
districts such as Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and other nearby districts as a latest
study found that nearly eight such districts lack milling capacity compared
with their annual demand."There is definitely investment scope to
establish integrated rice mills (rice processing unit, rice bran oil making
unit and bio-mass power unit) in Odisha.
We need to develop container facility at Paradip and Dhamra soon
so that home grown rice can also be exported from here, rather than depending
upon Haldia and Viskhapatnam ports to do so," said Dillip Kumar Agarwalla,
managing director, Sabitri Industries, which has a turnover of nearly Rs 350
crore per year out of its Jajpur rice processing plant.
Source wit thanks:http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/odisha-mulls-incentives-to-boost-rice-processing-114120201450_1.html
