Tuesday, December 20, 2016

20th December,2016 daily global regional and local rice e-newsletter by riceplus magazine



Connecting Bangladeshi rice farmers to commercial buyers


Tuesday, 20 December 2016 05:15

 

A USAID-funded project, Feed the Future Bangladesh Rice Value Chain (RVC), aimed at improving the rice value chain is helping 365 farmer organisations in southern Bangladesh to grow premium-quality crops to gain access to national buyers

The project aims to empower farmers to produce high value varieties of rice in bulk quantities. (Image source: Trung Hieu Dang/Pixabay)
The project works towards developing the capacity of the farmer groups who grow the same high-value rice varieties, composed of 10,500 farmer members, to produce their crops in bulk in order to improve opportunities to do business with millers and food companies.RVC was present at the recent 3rd Rice and Grains Tech Expo along with another project, Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA), led by the International Rice Research Institute. STRASA said that it is is speeding up dissemination of seeds of improved rice varieties to farmers in areas prone to drought, flooding, and other severe environmental conditions.

“South Bangladesh is one of the country's poorest areas and most vulnerable to cyclone-induced disasters. It also has a much lower level of industrialisation. So, all the national food processing companies have their bases, including mills and factories, in the northern and western parts of the country,” said RVC project leader Tim Russell.
The organisation commented that after RVC spearheaded the creation of farmer groups with the capacity to grow crops and varieties in demand throughout the country, processing companies have begun to set up buying operations in southern Bangladesh.At the Expo, the farmer organisations and their members had the opportunity to link with national companies that produce agriculture and forestry products, farm machinery, and new technologies for rice production and marketing. The buyers are primarily interested in purchasing Chinigura rice from the farmers who now have the capacity to grow this Bangladeshi aromatic variety in bulk, .

http://fareasternagriculture.com/crops/agriculture/connecting-rice-farmers-to-commercial-buyers-in-bangladesh
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Indonesia Books Highest Jump in Food Security Index
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said that Indonesia's food resiliency has improved over the last two years as reflected by end of staple food imports. Amran claimed that Indonesia recorded the highest jump in the food security index in 2016.
"No rice imports, onion imports, and chili pepper imports; corn imports dropped by 60 percent, as acknowledged by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The world recognizes that we have the highest jump [in the food security index] in the world," Amran said as quoted by Antara on Tuesday, December 20, 2016.
The Global Food Security Index (GFSI) 2016 shows that Indonesia achieves the highest increase with an index of 2.7, and the food availability rank of 66.
Amran explained that food supplies remained stable with rice productions that increased by 6.64 percent in 2015 and 4.97 percent in 2016, despite El-Nino and La-Nina. Over the last two years, rice productions climbed by 8.3 million tons or worth Rp 38.5 trillion (US$2.9 billion).
"In 2016, there were no recommendation to import premium rice, and we managed to address distribution issues," Amran added.
The Agriculture Ministry and the Central Statistics Agency forecasted that the production of dried paddy reached 79.14 tons in 2016, increasing by 3.74 million tons or 4.97 percent when compared to 2015. Corn productions stood at 23.16 million tons, increasing by 3.55 million tons or 18.11 percent when compared to 2015.
Amran also revealed that the Ministry managed to address price hikes in December due to famine.
"For the first time in 71 years, we don’t have famine in December. Usually, prices are high in December. But now, prices of rice and onion are going down," Amran claimed
http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2016/12/20/056829159/Indonesia-Books-Highest-Jump-in-Food-Security-Index

Thailand exports 9.3 million tons of rice Jan to mid-Dec 2016: commerce ministry


Farmers spray pesticide over their rice field in Nakhonsawan province, north of Bangkok, Thailand, December 17, 2016. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom
Thailand has exported 9.3 million tonnes of rice so far this year, mostly to China and countries in Africa, the commerce ministry said on Monday, well short of the government's target for 2016.From January to Dec. 14, 2016 Thailand signed export agreements for 9.3 million tonnes of rice worth 146 million baht ($4.07 million), said Duangporn Rodphaya, chief of the ministry's foreign trade department.
Early this month, Commerce Minister Apiradee Tantraporn said Thailand's rice exports this year would reach 10.5 million tonnes, above an earlier target of 9.5 million tonnes.
In a statement on Monday, Duangporn said Thailand, the world's second-largest rice exporter after India, will meet its rice export target this year and has until early January to finalize export agreements.
The top importers of Thai rice this year were Benin, Ivory Coast, South Africa, China and Cameroon, she added.
Thailand has stocks of about 8 million tonnes left over from a rice-buying scheme under the previous government that paid farmers well above market rates for their rice.
Most of the rice has been stored for more than five years, the foreign trade department said, making it difficult to sell it at target prices and to find potential buyers.
The current military government has been trying to sell off stockpiles from the scheme through several state auctions since it took power in 2014.Duangporn said the rice could be used for industrial purposes, adding that the government plans to offload all of the remaining rice stocks from the scheme by end-2017.
 ($1 = 35.8600 baht)
(Reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Sunil Nair)


Ministry eyes rotten rice as energy source

December 19, 2016 18:16
By The Nation

THE National Rice Policy Committee is soon to consider releasing about 5 million tonnes of deteriorated and rotten rice for alternative energy production to cut stockpiling costs.

Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Commerce Ministry’s Foreign Trade Department, said it would in early January propose to the committee that it consider ways to clear out the stockpiles, particularly rotten rice, which makes up about 5 million of the 8 million tonnes remaining in the government’s stocks.The Commerce Ministry will discuss with the Energy Ministry the possibility of using some of this stockpiled rice to produce energy. The purchase price might be quite low, but it would cut down on the rice stocks and thereby save warehousing costs, which currently are Bt510 million per month or Bt17 million per day, Duangporn sai
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/breakingnews/30302423


A Turtle Bay twist for Christmas Day

By Dan_Biggane  |  Posted: December 19, 2016

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