Today Rice News Headlines...
·
Trade with Iran yet to normalise
·
Asia Rice-Vietnam prices drop on southern
harvest; Thailand hold stable
·
Annual Rice Field Day, Aug. 31, Biggs
·
NFA supply enough to cover lean months ahead
·
New restrictions aim to curb rice imports
·
Good price expected when 1.11million tonnes of
rice goes to auction
·
Top scientists urge Greenpeace to drop GM,
Golden Rice campaign
·
Rice-for-child swap on the rice (sorry, rise)
·
Four get World Food Prize
·
NFA: There is enough rice for the lean months
·
Govt Approves Rice Loans
·
Paddy farmers ‘watching’ rain; sowing expected
to pick up in coming days
·
06/29/2016 Farm Bureau Market Report
Trade with Iran yet to
normalise
Mubarak
Zeb Khan ISLAMABAD: After lifting of sanctions
on Iran in February, Pakistan is yet to normalise business activities with the
country.On Tuesday, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan directed
representatives of banks to furnish viable proposals for facilitation of
banking transactions for trade with Iran within a month.The directive came from
the minister in a meeting with the officials of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)
and private banks for exploring banking channels available for trade with
post-sanctions Iran. Several meetings were held earlier to chalk out ways for
restoring the banking channel, but with no fruitful results despite repeated
requests from the trading community.The commerce minister said Pakistan is
searching for ways and means to initiate trade with Iran in a big way despite
several impediments.In March 2016, Iranian President visited Islamabad to boost
bilateral trade to $5 billion in five years. During the visit, both sides also
inked a framework to initiate talks on a free trade agreement (FTA), which will
cover trade in goods, services and investment by June 2016.
The agreement
is part of the five-year strategic trade cooperation plan (2016-2021). An
official statement issued after the meeting said that the meeting was informed
that despite removal of sanctions, private banks are reluctant to establish
direct banking channels with Iran. Usually, the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP)
leads others. However, it has also not yet taken any concrete step this time
around. Representatives of Pakistani private banks visited Iran a few months
ago and report great enthusiasm in Iran regarding trade with Pakistan. SBP and
Central Bank of Iran signed a Letter of Intent on the occasion of visit of
Iranian President to Pakistan for enhancing mutual cooperation and establishing
direct banking links. Yet the progress on restoration of banking channel is
very slow.
Pakistani
traders sense great opportunities of export right next door with minimal
transportation costs, especially that of basmati rice which earlier used to
fetch millions of dollars.Pakistan-Iran trade which was over one billion
dollars, now stands at $270 million because of the international sanctions.
Pakistan’s exports to Iran are limited to few products as 63 per cent of the
proceeds come only from rice. Exports to Iran fell to $43 million in 2014 from
$182m in 2010, while imports plunged to $186m in 2014 from $884m in 2010. UN
sanctions on Iran were the biggest reason behind this drop.
Pakistan’s
commerce ministry is extensively engaged with the Iranian ministries of trade
and industry and agriculture to fully operationalise the preferential trade
agreement (PTA) signed in 2006 and enhance trade facilitation at the border.
Pakistan has also sought a response from Iran on tariff and non-tariff trade
barriers. In the last four years, Iran diverted its trade towards India and
Turkey and there had been a marked increase in its bilateral trade with these
two countries. There has also been little benefit because of high tariff on
Pakistan’s exportable products.
The commerce
minister recently paid a visit to Pakistan-Iran border at Taftan and inspected
the facilities available for smooth movement of vehicles trading across the
border and promised to upgrade the infrastructure.As per the five-year economic
engagement plan agreed between Pakistan and Iran, the ministry of commerce has
forwarded the draft FTA framework agreement to Iran. However, the response from
the Iranian side is still awaited
Asia Rice-Vietnam prices drop on southern harvest; Thailand hold stable
Wednesday, 29 June 2016 14:51
HANOI:
Rice export prices held stable in Thailand before a state stock auction in
July, while rising supplies from a harvest in southern Vietnam have weakened
prices slightly, traders said on Wednesday.Buyers in Thailand, the world's second-biggest rice exporter after India, held back purchases, creating thin demand, before the government auction expected next month, traders in Bangkok said. The date of the auction is not yet known.
In the last auction of state stockpiles held on June 15, the Thai government sold 1.11 million tonnes worth 11.54 billion baht ($327 million).
Thailand's 5 percent broken rice stood unchanged in the past week at $415-$438 a tonne, FOB Bangkok.
Thai rice prices are expected to ease soon as the U.S. dollar has appreciated after the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union last week, resulting in a slightly weaker Thai baht.
"This is likely to lower our dollar prices, making our rice prices more competitive with Vietnam," a trader said.
Thailand has exported 4.7 million tonnes of rice in the first six months of 2016, up 11.42 percent from a year ago, Thailand's commerce minister said June 23.
In Vietnam, export prices of lower-quality 25 percent broken rice eased on rising supplies because of an accelerating harvest, while buying demand has yet to pick up, traders said.
The variety weakened to $335-$340 a tonne, FOB basis, using fresh summer-autumn grain, from $340-$345 last Wednesday, while the 5-percent broken rice stood unchanged at $370-$380 a tonne.
China, Vietnam's top rice importer, is not active, while Vietnamese jasmine rice has sold well to Ghana, traders said.
Ghana has passed the Philippines to emerge as Vietnam's third-biggest rice buyer after China and Indonesia during the first five months of 2016, importing 203,000 tonnes during that time, up 49.2 percent from a year ago, Vietnam's farm ministry said.
Vietnam's first-half rice exports fell 6.8 percent from a year earlier to 2.78 million tonnes, based on government statistics released on Tuesday.
A smaller winter-spring crop, Vietnam's biggest rice harvest period, has curbed the agricultural sector's growth, slowing Vietnam's economic expansion.
The crop paddy output fell 6.4 percent from last year to 19.4 million tonnes due to drought and salination, Nguyen Bich Lam, head of the statistics office, said in a report on Tuesday.
Supply from India, Thailand and Vietnam, the world's biggest exporters, accounts for a combined 66 percent of global rice trade
Annual Rice Field Day, Aug. 31, Biggs
Wednesday, August 31, 2016 • Biggs, CA
If
you’re in the California rice industry, mark your calendar now to attend for
the annual Rice Field Day on Aug. 31, 2016 at the Rice Experiment Station (RES)
in Biggs, Calif.The purpose of the event is for rice growers and other industry members to learn about rice research underway at the RES.
Agenda:
7:30 a.m. - Registration
8:30 - General Session (CCRRF annual membership meeting, rice research trust report, and the California rice industry award)
9:30 – Rice research field tours (focusing on variety improvement, disease resistance, insects and control, plus weeds and control)
Noon – Lunch
Posters and demonstrations will be available from registration through lunch.
The Rice Field Day is sponsored by the California Cooperative Rice Research Foundation and the University of California.
The RES is located at 955 Butte City Highway (Hwy. 162), approximately 2.5 miles west of Hwy. 99 north of Biggs.
For more information, visit http://www.crrf.or
http://westernfarmpress.com/annual-rice-field-day-aug-31-biggs
NFA supply enough to cover lean months ahead
By: Angel Palpal-latoc
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:16 AM June 30th, 2016
NFA officer-in-charge Tomas R. Escarez in a statement assured the public the agency has more than the required 30-day buffer stock before the lean months in grain production begin. He said current inventories were enough to last for 32 days.
“We have more than enough stocks of the good quality, low-priced NFA rice for the lean months,” Escarez said.
He said the national rice inventory currently stood at 3.54 metric tons (MT), good to last for 110 days based on the national daily requirement of 32,560 MT.
Of the inventory, 1.02 million MT is with the NFA, 1.04 million MT is in commercial warehouses, and 1.47 million MT is kept in households.
“These stocks are now strategically prepositioned across the country, especially in calamity-vulnerable areas,” Escarez said.
The NFA chief said he has ordered all the agency’s field offices to closely monitor the rice supply and price situation in all markets nationwide.
He also instructed the offices to accredit more rice outlets to assure low-income residents could have access to the NFA supplies.
“Closer price monitoring and the opening of more rice outlets will ensure that our people will always have access to NFA rice,” Escarez said.
Despite sufficient rice supply, the Philippine government has expressed interest in Thailand’s efforts to sell stockpiled rice, the World Trade Organization said earlier this month.
In the fourth quarter of 2015, the NFA purchased 750,000 tons of rice from state-run suppliers in Vietnam and Thailand.
New restrictions aim to curb rice imports
Wed, 29 June 2016
The Ministry of Economy and Finance announced
on Monday that the government will block all illegal rice imports at its
borders and limit legal rice shipments from Vietnam based on production cost.As part of the new regime, only milled rice with a production cost of $300 to $600 per tonne can legally be imported from Vietnam. The goal, according to the ministry, is to eliminate cheap Vietnamese rice that sells for $200 or less per tonne from the Cambodian market.
The ministry also requires identifying features, such as the name of the rice producer, rice variety and any trademarks, to be visible on imported packages in order to assess its true cost.
Moul Sarith, secretary-general of the Cambodian Rice Federation (CRF), the industry body representing the Kingdom’s rice millers and exporters, said the new policy would help Cambodia’s struggling rice sector survive amid an onslaught of cheap Vietnamese milled rice.
“This mechanism will control the flood of rice imports from Vietnam as well as rice smuggling,” he said yesterday. “It will also control the quality rice in the market.”
According to Sarith, Vietnamese rice produced for $200 to $300 per tonne was cheaper than locally milled rice, even with a 17 per cent import and VAT tax assessed.
He also said the government will exempt rice producers from paying a 15 per cent tax on day-worker salaries, as well as give a $20 million to $30 million loan to the CRF to help keep the local industry afloat, provided the organisation can produce a transparent spending budget.
In March, the CRF called on the government to take urgent measures aimed at addressing two key challenges to the domestic industry: millers’ insufficient access to capital and the flood of illegal rice imports from neighbouring countries.
The request followed a separate initiative by the Cambodian Rice Industry Survival Implementation Strategy (CRISIS) group, which provided a nine-point action plan to address .
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A worker stacks sacks of rice in Phnom Penh earlier this year. Hong Menea
Good price expected when 1.11million tonnes of rice goes
to auction
The Nation June 27, 2016 5:47 pm
The Rice Policy Management Committee
Monday agreed to sell 1.11 million tonnes of rice to 29 traders, which should
earn the country Bt11.54 billion.Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the
Foreign Trade Department, said that with demand for rice rising in the market,
the government could gain a good price from the latest auction.The traders were
among the 64 that joined the year's fourth round of bidding for 2.23 million
tonnes of rice.
The government has managed to
dispose of 6.59 million tonnes of its rice worth Bt69 billion via tender in the
past two years, leaving 9.5 million tonnes in its inventory. It will try to
unload as much of this rice as possible this year.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Good-price-expected-when-1-11-tonnes-of-rice-goes--30289223.html
Top scientists urge Greenpeace to drop GM, Golden Rice campaign
NOAH BERGER/BLOOMBERG
Javier
Alcantar tends to corn crops at the Monsanto test field in Woodland,
California. Monsanto is the world's largest producer of genetically engineered
seed.
Get quality greenhouse supplies for
professional nursing at Brinkman!
More
than 100 Nobel laureates have signed a letter urging Greenpeace to end its
opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs).The letter asks Greenpeace to cease its efforts to block introduction of a genetically engineered strain of rice that supporters say could reduce Vitamin-A deficiencies causing blindness and death in children in the developing world.
"We urge Greenpeace and its supporters to re-examine the experience of farmers and consumers worldwide with crops and foods improved through biotechnology, recognise the findings of authoritative scientific bodies and regulatory agencies, and abandon their campaign against 'GMOs' in general and Golden Rice in particular," the letter states.
The campaign was organised by Richard Roberts, chief scientific officer of New England Biolabs and, with Phillip Sharp, the winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for the discovery of genetic sequences known as introns.
The campaign has a website, supportprecisionagriculture.org, that includes a running list of the signatories, and the group plans to hold a news conference on Thursday.
"We're scientists. We understand the logic of science. It's easy to see what Greenpeace is doing is damaging and is anti-science," Roberts told The Washington Post.
"Greenpeace initially, and then some of their allies, deliberately went out of their way to scare people. It was a way for them to raise money for their cause."
BIG LAUREATE ENDORSEMENT
Roberts said he endorses many other activities of Greenpeace and said he hopes the group, after reading the letter, would "admit that this is an issue that they got wrong and focus on the stuff that they do well".
Greenpeace is hardly the only group that opposes GMOs, but it has a robust global presence, and the laureates in their letter contend that Greenpeace has led the effort to block golden rice, which has been genetically modified to produce beta carotene, a compound the body turns into Vitamin A.
The list of signatories had risen to 107 names by Wednesday. Roberts said that by his count, there are 296 living laureates.
Nobel laureate Randy Schekman, a cell biologist at the University of California at Berkeley, said, "I find it surprising that groups that are very supportive of science when it comes to global climate change, or even, for the most part, in the appreciation of the value of vaccination in preventing human disease, yet can be so dismissive of the general views of scientists when it comes to something as important as the world's agricultural future."
The letter states: "Scientific and regulatory agencies around the world have repeatedly and consistently found crops and foods improved through biotechnology to be as safe as, if not safer than those derived from any other methods of production. There has never been a single confirmed case of a negative health outcome for humans or animals from their consumption. Their environmental impacts have been shown repeatedly to be less damaging to the environment, and a boon to global biodiversity.
"Greenpeace has spearheaded opposition to Golden Rice, which has the potential to reduce or eliminate much of the death and disease caused by a vitamin A deficiency (VAD), which has the greatest impact on the poorest people in Africa and Southeast Asia.
"The World Health Organisation estimates that 250 million people, suffer from VAD, including 40 percent of the children under five in the developing world.
"Based on UNICEF statistics, a total of one to two million preventable deaths occur annually as a result of VAD, because it compromises the immune system, putting babies and children at great risk. VAD itself is the leading cause of childhood blindness globally affecting 250,000 - 500,000 children each year. Half die within 12 months of losing their eyesight."
'GENETIC POLLUTION'
The scientific consensus is that gene editing in a laboratory is not more hazardous than modifications through traditional breeding and that engineered plants potentially have environmental or health benefits, such as cutting down on the need for pesticides.
A report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, released in May, said there is no substantiated evidence that GMO crops have sickened people or harmed the environment, but also cautioned that such crops are relatively new and that it is premature to make broad generalisations, positive or negative, about their safety.
Opponents of GMOs have said these crops may not be safe for human or animal consumption, have not been shown to improve crop yields, have led to excessive use of herbicides and can potentially spread engineered genes beyond the boundaries of farms.
Greenpeace International's website states that the release of GMOs is a form of "genetic pollution".
It continues: "Genetic engineering enables scientists to create plants, animals and micro-organisms by manipulating genes in a way that does not occur naturally. These genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can spread through nature and interbreed with natural organisms, thereby contaminating non 'GE' environments and future generations in an unforeseeable and uncontrollable way."
Virtually all crops and livestock have been genetically engineered in the broadest sense; there are no wild cows, and the cornfields of the United States reflect many centuries of plant modification through traditional breeding. Genetically modified crops became common in the mid-1990s; today, most of the corn, soybeans and cotton in the country have been modified to be resistant to insects or tolerant of herbicide.
Opponents of GMOs have focused on the economic and social repercussions.
Greenpeace has warned of the corporate domination of the food supply, saying that small farmers will suffer. A Greenpeace spokesman Wednesday referred a reporter to a Greenpeace publication titled "Twenty Years of Failure: Why GM crops have failed to deliver on their promises."
This debate between mainstream scientists and environmental activists isn't new, and there is little reason to suspect that the Nobel laureates will persuade GMO opponents to stand down. But Columbia University's Martin Chalfie, who shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry for research on green fluorescent protein, said he thinks laureates can be influential on the GMO issue.
"Is there something special about Nobel laureates? I'm not so sure we're any more special than other scientists who have looked at the evidence involved, but we have considerably more visibility because of the prize. I think that this behooves us, that when we feel that science is not being listened to, that we speak out."
Roberts has worked on previous campaigns that sought to leverage the influence of Nobel laureates.
In 2012, for example, he organised a campaign to persuade Chinese authorities to release from house arrest the human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo.
Roberts said he decided to take on the GMO issue after hearing from colleagues that their research was being impeded by anti-GMO activism from Greenpeace and other organisations.
Rice-for-child swap on the rice (sorry, rise)
Hardballon: June 29,
2016
in the
mid-80s was a-rice o compatriots! Then essential commodities,
most notably, rice was so scarce that each time Nigerians heard the word rise,
in any conversation, speech or even the national anthem, they would come to
attention, if only to find out the next location for the rationed sale of rice.There was a famous cartoon in one national newspaper of that era, which depicted guests apparently at a seminar snoring away even as the speaker pranced and puffed, presenting his speech. The great moment came when the speaker said: “In conclusion, all these would give rise…” and pronto, the snoozing audience came alive exclaiming: “Rice? Did he just say rice?! Where?!”
Today, Nigeria’s rice conundrum has shifted another gear and downhill it seems to throttle. Two grievous incidents happened last week to buttress this point.
Inside Government House, Borno State, Northeast of Nigeria, there was a near-fatal shootout as policemen and soldiers struggled over control of bags of rice meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Also in Borno, some officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) were apprehended attempting to re-bag rice meant for IDPs with a view to diverting them.
But all these would be mild drama compared to the event last Sunday at Singer Market, Fagge Local Government Area of Kano State. A man identified as Mallam Yusuf Bala procured a bag of rice from Alhaji Suleiman Bagudu, a rice dealer in the market and reportedly left his five-year-old son at the rice dealer’s. He had promised to dash home for some more money to make payment. He never returned for his boy.
When he was traced to his residence, he
confessed he was impoverished, thus had to devise such a means to find
sustenance for his family. This trick is not novel by any means. A woman had
played it out quite successfully in Akure, Ondo State recently.
With the strictures at the land borders to curb
rice importation and attendant massive smuggling, it has become apparent that
Nigeria, the giant of Africa boasting of a population of over 170 million, can
hardly produce one tenth of her most important staple food. The prices of the
imported commodity have continued to skyrocket, almost jumping out of the reach
of the common man. A 50 kg bag, which sold for a little below N10, 000 about a
year ago, has almost double, depending on the city you are.
One worries that so much hoopla has been made
about local production of rice; in fact, the last government had claimed it was
going to achieve local sufficiency by 2015. Yet hardly can local rice be found
in any significant quantity in any part of the country. So much for
diversification of the economy, food security and the rediscovery of Nigeria’s
rice belt, which had been the buzz phrases in the past few years?
We knew about crude oil swap deals; now we have
rice for child swaps; what next
http://thenationonlineng.net/rice-child-swap-rice-sorry-rise/
Four get World Food Prize
Dr Bouis, who helped Bangladeshi scientists breed world's first zinc-enriched rice, among winners
The 2016 World Food Prize Laureates (from left to right) - Dr.
Maria Andrade, Dr. Robert Mwanga and Dr. Jan Low, three scientists of the
International Potato Center (CIP), and Dr Howarth Bouis, founder of the
HarvestPlus.
Staff Correspondent
Founder
of an international organisation that helped Bangladeshi scientists breed the
world's first zinc-enriched rice has been announced this year's World Food
Prize recipient along with three other pioneers of biofortified crops.Names of Howarth Bouis, founder of HarvestPlus, and three scientists of the International Potato Centre (CIP) -- Maria Andrade, Robert Mwanga and Jan Low -- were announced as the 2016 World Food Prize Laureates during a ceremony at the US State Department in Washington DC yesterday.
Releases issued by the World Food Prize authorities and HarvestPlus Bangladesh said the four winners would receive the award at a ceremony to be held at the Iowa State Capitol building in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, on October 13 this year.
The World Food Prize, created in 1986 by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Norman Borlaug, is the most prominent global award for individuals whose breakthrough achievements alleviate hunger and promote global food security. Last year's recipient was Sir Fazle Hasan Abed. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus also won the World Food Prize in 1994.
This year's $250,000 prize will be divided equally among the four recipients. The prize rewards their work in countering world hunger and malnutrition through biofortification, the process of breeding critical vitamins and micronutrients into staple crops.
Over the last 25 years, Howarth Bouis, popularly known in scientific fraternity as Howdy, pioneered the implementation of a multi-institutional approach to biofortificatoin as a global plant breeding strategy.
Bouis recognised that what mattered was not just how many calories people get, but the nutritional value contained in their food. Today, more than 2 billion people -- one in three -- do not get enough essential vitamins and minerals. Undernutrition contributes to almost half of deaths in children under 5. More than one in three children under 5 is stunted in most parts of Africa and South Asia.
He pioneered promotion of biofortification as a process to breed critical vitamins and micronutrients directly into staple crops to improve their nutritional quality.
As a result of his leadership, crops such as rice, beans, wheat and pearl millet have been biologically fortified with iron and zinc and those along with Vitamin A-enriched cassava, maize and orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) are being tested or released in over 40 countries.
Maria Andrade, Robert Mwanga and Jan Low of the CIP, which has had sweet potato in its research mandate since 1988, are being honoured for their work developing the single most successful example of biofortification -- OFSP.
Thanks to the combined efforts of these four laureates, over 10 million people are now positively impacted by biofortified crops, with a potential of several hundred million more in the coming decades.
Under the support of HarvestPlus, Bangladesh has released since 2013 five zinc biofortified rice varieties -- four inbred varieties by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and one hybrid variety by the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University.
Of the 64 districts in Bangladesh, HarvestPlus in 2015 covered 58 districts, reaching 50,000 farm households in 350 upazilas, and in 2016, it expanded its operation in 64 districts covering around 5,00,000 farm households.
Currently, HarvestPlus is working with six government organisations, 25 NGOs, and two seed multiplier associations (300 companies).
Countries where crops have been released include: Bangladesh (zinc rice); the Democratic Republic of Congo (iron beans and Vitamin A cassava); India (iron pearl millet, zinc rice and zinc wheat); Nigeria (Vitamin A cassava and maize); Rwanda (iron beans); Uganda (Vitamin A OFSP and iron beans); Mozambique (Vitamin A OFSP); Zambia (Vitamin A maize), and Pakistan (zinc wheat).
HarvestPlus is part of a Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health run by the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). CGIAR is a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/four-get-world-food-prize-1247857
NFA: There is enough rice for the lean months
June 29, 2016 9:07 pm
The
National Food Authority (NFA) on Wednesday assured Filipinos there is ample
rice even if the government’s rice importation scheme for the lean months has
been deferred.In a statement, NFA Officer-in Charge Tomas Escarez said he has directed all field offices to monitor the supply and price situation in markets nationwide.
“We have more than enough stock of the good quality, low-priced NFA rice for the lean months,” Escarez noted.
As of June 15, the country has more than the 30-day buffer stock needed at the start of the lean months. Currently, the inventory is enough for 32 days.
“These stocks are now strategically prepositioned across the country, especially in calamity-vulnerable areas,” the NFA official said.
The lean season starts in July and ends in September. It is the time when the government imports rice to help stabilize retail prices.
Under the Food Staples Sufficiency Program, the country should have a 60-day inventory at any given time, and a 90-day buffer stock during lean months.
The state-run NFA alone is required by law to have at least a 15-day buffer stock in its depositories at any given time, and a 30-day buffer stock during lean months.
Escarez has instructed field offices to accredit more outlets for NFA rice so the supply may be more accessible to low-income residents anywhere in the country.
“Closer price monitoring and the opening of more rice outlets will ensure that our people will always have access to NFA rice,” Escarez said.
The country’s national rice inventory currently stands at 3.54 million metric tons (MT), to last for 110 days based on a national daily requirement of 32,560 MT. At least 1.02 million MT is with the NFA, 1.04 million MT is commercial rice, with 1.47 million MT in households.
NFA Spokesperson Angel Imperial said the grains agency has yet to receive the order on importation, particularly the mandated buffer stock by the government and use of the minimum access volume (MAV) by the private sector.
“… [T]he NFA administration has decided to let the new leadership to make the importation decision,” Imperial said, adding that the Philippines can afford to stall discussions on importation.
Talks about transferring the NFA back to the Department of Agriculture may also affect the negotiations on rice imports.
“At the… first week of July, we can expect a decision by the new leadership,” Imperial noted.
Prior to his resignation, former NFA Administrator Renan Dalisay said they have prepared all possible rice importation schemes for approval of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte
Govt Approves Rice Loans
The government has come to the rescue of rice
millers and exporters, currently in the throes of a serious financial crisis,
with loans of between $20 and $30 million to the Cambodia Rice Federation
(CRF). This is to help the sector purchase rice from farmers after the harvest
this November, to store in warehouses and process them for export, said the
CRF.Hun Lak, CRF vice president, told Khmer Times yesterday that he and key
rice millers and exporters had met with
economy
and finance minister Aun Pornmonirath on Monday.In the meeting, Mr. Hun Lak
said, important issues like an emergency budget to revive the rice sector
following the severe drought that affected production, the flow of low-grade
rice into the country from Vietnam, and high taxes imposed on rice millers were
discussed.“The government agreed to make out the loans of between $20 and $30
million to CRF, with the foundation acting as a guarantor. The CRF in turn will
screen all applicants and hand out the money to deserving rice millers and
exporters,” he said.Mr. Hun Lak said the government would charge an interest
rate of about seven to eight percent for the loans. “These loans would enable
rice millers and exporters to purchase rice from farmers to store in their
warehouses and later process them for export.”Mr. Hun Lak said the CRF had
already formed a working group with representatives from the Ministry of
Economy and Finance and the Rural Development Bank to process all the loan
applications.
“We hope to complete all the formalities
immediately after CRF’s annual general meeting on July 2,” he said.All CRF
members have to submit their loan request forms if they want to apply for the
grants. There will be a formula for vetting the applicants to ensure that the loans
would be put to good use to revive their businesses,” added Mr. Lak.In March,
rice millers and exporters wrote to the government urging intervention due to
stiff competition in export markets as well as domestic ones. In the letter,
they said they were facing a cash crunch due to a flood of low-grade rice from
Vietnam while stressing that bankruptcy was widespread among farmers, millers
and exporters alike.The letter said Vietnamese companies were snapping up
high-quality Cambodian paddy for export from Vietnam and flooding the Cambodian
market with low-grade rice. This, the letter said, was driving domestic millers
out of the market.
To make matters worse, many millers, exporters and farmers are in financial doldrums due to the severe drought early this year that saw rice production fall drastically.Economy and Finance Minister Aun Pornmoniroth, stressed that Cambodia would not totally stop importing rice from neighboring countries. However, he said the government plans to reduce the export duty of milled rice
To make matters worse, many millers, exporters and farmers are in financial doldrums due to the severe drought early this year that saw rice production fall drastically.Economy and Finance Minister Aun Pornmoniroth, stressed that Cambodia would not totally stop importing rice from neighboring countries. However, he said the government plans to reduce the export duty of milled rice
Image: Many millers, exporters and farmers are in financial
doldrums due to the severe drought early this year that saw rice production
fall drastically. KT/Chor Sokunthea
Paddy farmers ‘watching’ rain; sowing expected to pick up in coming days
Farmers in Punjab, Odisha, Haryana, Bengal,
Chhattisgarh, await upturn in monsoon
New Delhi, June
27:
Sowing of paddy in the country so far is
significantly lower compared to the average sowing in the previous five years.
Farmers, not just in States that have received
low rainfall, such as Odisha, Haryana, Assam, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, but
also in Punjab, which received good ‘pre-monsoon’ rains last week, have adopted
a ‘wait-and-watch’ approach.
On the bright side, rice sowing is likely to
gather pace in the last week of June and early July, as “conditions are
becoming favourable” for a further advance of the South-West monsoon after June
24, according to the Indian Meteorological Department.
Farm advisory
Some more parts of the north Arabian Sea and
Gujarat, the remaining parts of west Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and most parts of Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi,
Punjab and east Rajasthan are likely to get covered by the monsoon this week.
“Advisories are now being sent to farmers to
undertake transplanting of rice seedlings and continue nursery sowing of rice
in almost all major rice growing States, including Punjab, Haryana, West
Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,” an Agriculture
Ministry official told BusinessLine.
Farmers in coastal Karnataka and Kerala as well
as Assam, which may get a short-spell of heavy rains, have been advised to
provide for proper drainage in rice fields and drain out excess water from rice
nursery/transplanted rice field and orchards to avoid water stagnation.
“The timing of sowing is very important as not
just early sowing but late sowing could also spoil a crop as a deluge at the
wrong time could harm the seed,” pointed out agriculture expert VN Saroja.
Lower acreage
Till June 24, lower area coverage under rice,
compared to normal of corresponding week (average of 2011-12 to 2015-16), was
reported from Punjab (8.08 lakh hectares shortfall), Odisha (2.09 lakh hectare
shortfall), Chhattisgarh (1.59 lakh hectare shortfall), Haryana (1.26 lakh
hectare shortfall), Assam (0.9 lakh hectare shortfall), Kerala (0.26 lakh
hectare shortfall), Uttarakhand (0.12 lakh hectare shortfall), Bihar (0.10 lakh
hectare shortfall), Telangana (0.09 lakh hectare shortfall), Andhra Pradesh
(0.08 lakh hectare shortfall), West Bengal (0.06 lakh hectare shortfall),
Tripura (0.06 lakh hectare shortfall), Rajasthan (0.05 lakh hectare shortfall),
Sikkim (0.02 lakh hectare shortfall) and Mizoram (0.01 lakh hectare shortfall).
Plentiful rain is vital for a good rice crop as
cereal — the staple food for people in Eastern and Southern India — is very
heavily monsoon-dependent in the country.
India is the second largest producer of the
crop (annual production of about 105 million tonnes), which is mostly grown in
the kharif season, and accounts for over a fourth of total world
production.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/paddy-farmers-watching-rain-sowing-expected-to-pick-up-in-coming-days/article8780118.ece
APEDA AgriExchange Newsletter - Volume 1505
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Market Watch
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Commodity-wise,
Market-wise Daily Price on 28-06-2016
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|
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Domestic
Prices
|
Unit
Price : Rs per Qty
|
||||
|
|
Product
|
Market Center
|
Variety
|
Min Price
|
Max Price
|
|
|
|
Maize
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
Haveri
(Karnataka)
|
Local
|
1690
|
1750
|
|
|
|
2
|
Dahod
(Gujarat)
|
Yellow
|
1700
|
1750
|
|
|
|
3
|
Sangli
(Maharashtra)
|
Other
|
1850
|
1900
|
|
|
|
Paddy(Dhan)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
Sanad
(Gujarat)
|
Other
|
1450
|
2860
|
|
|
|
2
|
Kasargod
(Kerala)
|
Other
|
1500
|
1600
|
|
|
|
3
|
Attabira
(Orissa)
|
Other
|
1410
|
1450
|
|
|
|
Papaya
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
Jagraon
(Punjab)
|
Other
|
2300
|
2700
|
|
|
|
2
|
Jalore
(Rajasthan)
|
Other
|
1500
|
1700
|
|
|
|
3
|
Pilibhit
(Uttar Pradesh)
|
Other
|
1230
|
1270
|
|
|
|
Onion
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
Bargarh
(Orissa)
|
Other
|
1500
|
1700
|
|
|
|
2
|
Giridih
(Jharkhand)
|
Other
|
1200
|
1500
|
|
|
|
3
|
Siliguri
(West Bengal)
|
Other
|
1600
|
1800
|
|
06/29/2016 Farm Bureau Market Report
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