Rice to get cheaper this year? Check how Basmati firms
will save costs amid coronavirus
By: FE Online |
Published: July 28, 2020 5:24
PM
The
rice industry is one of the few outliers in Indian economy which will not only
be able to break the pessimism of coronavirus but also the global economic
slowdown.
A rise in export demand is
another reason why the rice industry is off to a good year even while many
other sectors are scrambling to stay afloat due to the pandemic.
As
India continues to experience healthy monsoon rainfall, prices of paddy are
likely to fall considerably in the current financial year 2020-21. “Paddy
prices are expected to fall around 17% in the current fiscal from an average of
Rs 36 per kg seen last fiscal due to good monsoon and stable acreage,” a report
by CRISIL Ratings said on Tuesday. Basmati companies are also in for a 100-150
bps margin boost due to lower paddy prices and stable volume demand from
foreign nations, the report added. In fact, the rice industry is one of the few
outliers in Indian economy which will not only be able to break the pessimism
of coronavirus but also the global economic slowdown.
A
rise in export demand is another reason why the rice industry is off to a good
year even while many other sectors are scrambling to stay afloat due to the
pandemic. The United States, the United Kingdom, the Middle East (excluding
Iran), which account for more than 50% of India’s total rice exports, are
creating a buffer food stock amid the pandemic. Hence, the demand for exports
in these countries has increased, the report said. “Export realisation is
unlikely to decline in the same proportion as paddy prices because orders from
key markets continue to be strong.” Annually, India exports around 4.4 million
tonne of rice. While trade tensions continue with Iran, which imports around
1.3 million tonne annually, and the exports to the country are expected to fall
by 20%, the higher demand from other countries is likely to offset the Iran
trade issue.
“Rigid food habits and strong preference for
basmati rice will prevent downgrade to non-basmati varieties in the retail
market,” the report said. The demand for rice has remained strong during
lockdown, Subodh Rai, Senior Director and Head of Analytics, CRISIL Ratings
said. Meanwhile, spreads between blended realisation and paddy prices are
expected to improve to Rs 31 per kg as opposed to last financial year’s Rs 29
per kg. This would mean profitability of around 5.5-7.5% in this financial
year.
Alternative rice products see double digit growth in
demand amid trade disruption
·
Mardika Parama
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta / Wed, July 29,
2020 / 08:24 am
Heading home: A farmer walks
among rice fields in Brebes regency, Central Java. (Courtesy of Marius
Moragues/-)
The disruptions to trade and falling imports caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic have led to a double-digit increase in demand for
locally produced, high-quality, alternative rice products, farmer cooperatives
have reported.
Sales of high-quality foreign rice varieties
and organic rice products such as Japonica rice, Basmati rice, Jasmine rice,
and high-protein black rice have increased by 20 percent, Mintogoro Cooperative
chairperson Hery Sugiarto told The Jakarta Post on Monday. The
cooperative is based in Demak, Central Java.
“Alhamdulillah [thank God] the
pandemic impacted our business positively rather than the other way around, as
demand for our products has increased 20 percent,” he said during an online
webinar held by the Indonesian Seed Cooperative (Kobeta).
The market for foreign rice varieties in
Indonesia is relatively small compared to regular rice. According to the latest
available data compiled by the Agriculture Ministry, Indonesia imported 295,714
tons of “special” rice varieties compared to 987,500 tons of medium-grain rice
in 2016.
The special rice varieties comprise Thai hom
mali, basmati, japonica, brown and low-glycemic rice, according to the
ministry’s data.
Despite the niche market for the products, Hery
said the worldwide disruptions to trade had impacted rice imports, increasing
demand for the cooperative’s products.
According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data,
the country booked a 14.28 percent year-on-year (yoy) decrease in imports
between January and June.
Furthermore, the rise of Indonesia’s
upper-middle class has also supported demand growth for more expensive special
rice varieties, which are considered healthier than regular rice.
“We are targeting the growing upper-middle
class segment. As they’re extremely concerned with product quality, we pack our
products neatly and market them through online marketplaces to attract
customers,” he said.
Amid the growing demand for special rice
varieties, Hery said high-quality seeds and fertilizers were crucial for
successful cultivation. However, he added that the seeds sometimes were
difficult to find.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Bali-based
Jagadhita Farming Cooperative, Nyoman Suma Artha, voiced similar concerns, and
urged the government to focus on improving fertilizer and seed quality to
increase yields.
Nyoman said farmers in Bali could increase
their rice production, in yield per hectare, by up to 5 tons by using
high-quality fertilizers and seeds, double the yield rate of lower quality
fertilizers.
“We could produce between 8 to 10 tons of dried
grains [per ha] if we use high-quality fertilizers and the right techniques,
while lower quality fertilizers and seeds produce only around 5 tons [per ha],”
he said.
The Agriculture Ministry has set a rice
production target of 62.5 million tons for 2021, 5 percent higher than this
year’s target.
The government has allocated Rp 18.4 trillion
(US$1.26 billion) for the ministry’s 2021 budget, of which around half has been
allocated for programs to ensure the availability and accessibility of
high-quality food.
However, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin
Limpo said on July 7 that the allocation would not be enough to finance
policies to ramp up food production, and proposed an additional Rp 10 trillion
in next year's state budget to finance its planned policies.
“The Rp 18.4 trillion budget allocated to the
ministry for 2021 is far from sufficient for the economy to recover after the
COVID-19 pandemic in villages that heavily rely on agriculture, and to meet the
food production target set in the government’s working plan,” Syahrul said in a
hearing with the House of Representatives.
In 2019, prolonged drought led to a decline in
Indonesia’s rice production, which was down 13.2 percent year-on-year to 16.1
million tons in the first half of 2020, according to the World Food Programme’s
(WFP) Indonesia office.
China Food Crisis? Rising Domestic Prices And Large Import Purchases
Send A Signal
11,873 views|Jul 28, 2020,05:34pm
EDT
I write about commodities through a three-decade lens of
experience.
Empty plate (dark) and Chinese chopsticks on a dark background.
Asian style, Asian cuisine. Copy ... [+]
GETTY
Rising demand, floods, insect infestations, and rumors of
spoiled inventories are all contributing to China’s developing food related
woes.
China has a food problem. To a nation whose leaders are old
enough to have been directly impacted by The Great Famine, the seriousness of food shortages
cannot be overestimated. China’s burgeoning population, growing industrial
economy, and expanding culture of consumerism are all contributing to a steady
rise in demand for agricultural products.
But agricultural production, lest anyone forget, is subject to
the biblical forces of floods, fire, pestilence, and a host of other variables,
some of which are right now upsetting China’s delicate food stability. The
world’s most populous nation will certainly not run out of food, but prices are
rising and hints of tightening supplies are beginning to appear. Things may get
worse before they get better.
Three headline issues are challenging China right now: floods,
pestilence, and inventory problems.
Above average rainfall and rising floodwaters are not just threatening to compromise China’s gargantuan Three Gorges Dam;
rain and flooding are already disrupting rice, wheat and other crop
production in the provinces all along the entire Yangtze River.
Perhaps this is why China, which holds just over half of the
world’s wheat inventories and is the globe’s second largest producer of wheat
(behind the European Union), has already imported more wheat in the first half
of 2020 than it has in the first half of any year in the past decade. In the
month of June alone, China’s single month import volume of wheat from all
sources was the highest in seven years.
Inventory Problems and Insect Infestations Threaten Corn
According to the USDA, China is not only the world’
second largest corn producer (behind the United States), it will also hold a
full sixty five percent of the world’s corn inventories at the end of this crop
year. But last week press reports emerged citing the poor quality in some state
owned corn inventories, some of which are years old. The reports coincided with
two large Chinese purchases of corn from the United States, one of which was
its largest purchase ever (1.76 million metric tons or 69 million bushels).
Furthermore, corn prices in China have risen to 5 year highs
even though China has recently sold more than 1.4 billion bushels of corn out
of state reserves, which would indicate there is a definite issue of some sort
with China’s corn supply. The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service points to an
unusually early and intense infestation of Fall Army Worm in June as the
likely cause of China’s current corn angst.
Rising Demand
It is worth noting that year-to-date China is on pace to make
its highest rate of US soybean purchases since 2014, and China’s June imports
of soybeans from Brazil were up a staggering 91% from the year prior. China is
aggressively buying soybeans and soybean products to feed its expanding swine
herd, the world’s largest. In fact, the USDA projects that China will import
from all sources a record total amount of soybeans next year.
Overall, the past few months have seen China increase its
imports of pork, soybeans, soymeal, wheat, corn, sorghum and prepared/frozen
foods from the United States and elsewhere. China can’t feed itself; it needs
the world’s help, especially if its domestic production and inventories are
compromised.
It’s too early to gauge the ultimate severity of China's total
food woes, and it’s highly unlikely that the ripple effects of China's food
issues will cascade through the global food chain, but right now Chinese
leadership has food security as a top concern.
VIETNAM'S
JAN-JULY COFFEE EXPORTS DROP 0.1%, RICE DOWN 1.4%
7/28/2020
HANOI, July 29 (Reuters) -
Vietnam's coffee exports in the first seven months of the year are expected to
drop 1.4% from a year earlier to 1.06 million tonnes, and rice exports will
likely drop 1.4%, government data released on Wednesday showed. COFFEE Coffee
exports from Vietnam will likely decrease an estimated 1.4% in the first seven
months of this year from a year earlier to 1.06 million tonnes, equal to 17.68
million 60-kg bags, the General Statistics Office said in a report on
Wednesday. Coffee export revenue for Vietnam, the world's biggest producer of
the robusta bean, will likely decrease 0.5% to $1.8 billion in the seven-month
period, the report said. The country's coffee shipments in July are estimated
at 120,000 tonnes valued at $213 million, it said. RICE Rice exports in the
first seven months of this year from Vietnam were forecast to drop 1.4% from a
year earlier to 3.9 million tonnes. Revenue from rice exports in the period was
expected to rise 10.9% to $1.91 billion. July rice exports from Vietnam, the
world's third-largest shipper of the grain, totalled 300,000 tonnes, worth $109
million ENERGY Vietnam's Jan-July crude oil exports were seen rising 18.7% from
the same period last year to an estimated 2.8 million tonnes. Crude oil export
revenue in January to July is expected to fall 25.2% to $915 million. Oil
product imports in the first seven months were estimated at 6.9 million tonnes,
up 41.9% from the same period last year, and the value of product imports rise
8.1% to $2.5 billion .
(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen Editing
by Ed Davies)
© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020.
Click For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
https://www.agriculture.com/markets/newswire/vietnams-jan-july-coffee-exports-drop-01-rice-down-14
|
||||
|
|
|
Rice
Sustainability Focus of New USA Rice Podcast Episode ARLINGTON,
VA -- The second full episode of the USA Rice podcast, The Rice Stuff,
went live today and features an in-depth discussion of the
groundbreaking U.S. Rice Industry Sustainability Report with
experts Lydia Holmes and Steve Linscombe. |
|
2020 Katy Rice
Festival to be held virtually Oct. 9-11
A zydeco musician performs at the 2019 Katy Rice
Festival. At the 2020 festival, music will be livestreamed for viewers. (Jen
Para/Community Impact Newspaper)
A zydeco musician performs at the
2019 Katy Rice Festival. At the 2020 festival, music will be livestreamed for
viewers. (Jen Para/Community Impact Newspaper)
Now is the chance to help your local
community succeed. Become a Patron by contributing to Community Impact
Newspaper and gain daily insight into what's happening in your own
backyard. Thank you for reading and supporting community journalism.
The coronavirus pandemic
will not stop the city of Katy from hosting the annual Katy Rice Festival in
2020.
Rather than hosting the event in person, the city will host the event online
Oct. 9-11 with a virtual craft market, family activities and band performances
that will be livestreamed, according to
a July 27 Facebook post from the city of Katy.
“Unfortunately, due to uncertainty surrounding the current COVID-19 situation,
the traditional festival format is not possible this year,” the post reads.
“The health and safety of our patrons, vendors, artists, volunteers, partners,
staff and the entire Katy community remains our highest priority. Rest assured,
we are not just cancelling the event - THE [altered] SHOW MUST GO ON!”
More information about virtual activities will be revealed in the coming
months, per the post.
Last year's three-day event included a parade,
a craft market, live music and a carnival.
Katy Katy
Rice Festival Coronavirus
(COVID-19) Katy
Events Katy
Government
The Food Standards Agency and
supermarket giants Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda have issued a product recall on
Uncle Ben’s Brown Basmati ready to heat rice pouches.
Mars Food UK issued the warning
on Uncle Ben's Brown Basmati Rice as it may contain traces of glass.
When a food product is recalled
the Food Standards Agency provides details on what customers should do if they
have bought the items, as well as information on why the product is being
pulled from shelves.
The Food Standards Agency issues 'Product
Withdrawal Information Notices' and 'Product Recall Information Notices' to let
consumers and local authorities know about problems associated with food.
Uncle Ben's
Brown Basmati Microwave Rice
Mars Food UK is recalling the food with particular best before dates.
The Food Standards Agency website
states: "Mars Food UK is recalling Uncle Ben’s Brown Basmati ready to heat
rice pouches as some packs may contain pieces of glass.
"The possible presence of
glass makes this product unsafe to eat."
VIDEO LOADING
WHY
SUPERMARKET STAFF WON'T HAVE TO WEAR MASKS IN STORES WHEN THE LAW CHANGES ON
JULY 24
Full list of
affected packs
Best Before November 17, 2020
Best before December 8, 2020
Best before December 9, 2020
Best before January 8, 2021
Best before January 18, 2021
Best before January 19, 2021
Best before March 2, 2021
Best before March 16, 2021
Best before March 20, 2021
Best before May 24, 2021
Best before July 3, 2021
Best before June 14, 2021
Best before June 15, 2021
Best before July 19, 2021
Check the best before dates
The packs affected are 250 grams.
Customers are advised to return
the faulty packs to the store where it was bought for a full refund.
Shoppers can also get in touch
with Uncle Ben's consumer care line on 0800-952-1234 to arrange a refund.
All supermarkets selling the rice will have
point-of-sale notices in store giving more information.
The notices say: "Uncle
Ben's is voluntarily recalling Uncle Ben's Brown Basmati 250g ready to heat
rice pouches.
"This is a precautionary
recall due to the possible presence of glass.
"No other best before dates
or Uncle Ben's products are affected by this recall."
Nigel Slater’s recipe for brown basmati, courgettes
and tomatoes
Chewy brown rice with a selection
of healthy herby veg
Tue 28 Jul
2020 12.00 BST
Nice
rice: brown basmati with courgettes and tomatoes. Photograph: Jonathan
Lovekin/The Observer
The recipe
Wash
150g of brown basmati rice in a bowl of deep water. (I do this three times,
some might say once is enough.) Put the rice in a medium-sized saucepan, cover
it with twice the volume of water and bring to the boil. Add half a teaspoon of
salt, 6 black peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves and cover with a lid,
lowering the heat so the water simmers gently. Leave for 15 minutes, or until
the rice is as you like it, then remove from the heat and set aside, still
covered, for 10 minutes.
The
tomatoes provide a sweet-sharp sauce to which you can add almost anything you
like
Cut
2 small to medium courgettes into 1cm dice. Finely slice 2 medium leeks. Melt
30g of butter in a large frying pan, add 3 tbsp of olive oil and heat until
they start to sizzle. Add the courgette, lower the heat, and cook until they
start to soften and turn pale gold in colour.
Finely
chop the leaves from a couple of bushy sprigs of rosemary and add to the
courgette. Fry for a minute or two then stir in the leeks and leave to cook for
7-10 minutes, until the leeks have softened.
Chop
3 medium tomatoes and scatter among the vegetables, cover with a lid and leave
to cook for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt, quite generously with black pepper
and a generous squeeze of lemon.
Run
a fork through the rice to separate the grains, then fold into the vegetables
and serve. Enough for 2.
The trick
I
like the inherent chewy quality of brown rice, especially when the juices from
a vegetable stew such as this trickle through the grains. It takes a little
longer than white rice to cook, but not as much as is often suggested. I would
normally recommend not to lift the lid from a pot of cooking rice to check its
progress, but as brown rice is generally more variable, it is worth checking
regularly after the first 10 minutes.
The twist
I
do this sort of impromptu “stew” most often in summer. The tomatoes provide a
sweet-sharp sauce to which you can add almost anything you like. Steamed French
beans or broad beans; peas or pencil-thin carrots; young, steamed beetroot or
small summer turnips will all work. Basil leaves are a favourite addition, as
are young leaves and flower of thyme. A scattering of mint is something to
think about, as is the addition of a bunch of washed and shredded spinach at
the very end.
Follow
Nigel on Twitter @NigelSlater
Since you're here ...
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Packets
of rice recalled as they may contain glass
Either
return them to the shop or contact the manufacturer for a full refund
·
07:15, 28 JUL 2020
how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any
time.
The Food Standards Agency has issued a product
recall for packets of rice which may contain glass.
Uncle Ben’s Brown Basmati rice pouches have
been recalled.
The Food Standards Agency website reads:
"Mars Food UK is recalling Uncle Ben’s Brown Basmati ready to heat rice
pouches as some packs may contain pieces of glass.
"The possible presence of glass makes this
product unsafe to eat."
The packets are 250g pouches with a range of
best before dates - between November 17, 2020 and July 19, 2021.
Anyone who has bought the product has been
warned not to eat it. Instead return it to the store from where it was bought
for a full refund or dispose of it and contact Uncle Ben’s consumer care line
on 0800-952-1234 for a full refund.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/packets-rice-recalled-contain-glass-18673314
DA aims to make Filipino rice farmers competitive
By DAPublished on July 28, 2020
QUEZON
CITY, July 28 -- The Department of Agriculture through the Philippine Center
for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) is on track in
providing rice farmers appropriate machinery and equipment under the Duterte
administration’s Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) program.
DA will continue to boost farm
mechanization to help rice farmers. Photo by DA
“We
will continue to boost farm mechanization to reduce production costs, enable
our rice farmers produce more harvests, earn bigger incomes, and subsequently
compete with their counterparts in ASEAN,” said Agriculture Secretary William
Dar.
To
date, the DA-PhilMech has procured and currently distributing 2,938 farm
machinery and equipment worth P2 billion (B) to 625 RCEF-accredited farmers’
cooperatives and associations (FCAs) nationwide.
The
second batch of 4,996 units — worth P3B under the P5-B RCEF farm mechanization
component for 2019 — is under a bidding process and expected to be completed by
July 31, 2020, said DA-PhilMech director Baldwin Jallorina. Thereafter, the
farm machines and equipment will be given to the second batch of 1,068 FCAs.
For
the 2020 P5-B RCEF farm mechanization budget, Jallorina said the DA-PhilMech
has to date validated 2,587 FCA applicants, of which 1,259 FCAs have been
shortlisted and qualified to receive 4,543 farm machineries.
“With
the sustained and vigorous implementation of the RCEF program, coupled with our
Rice Resiliency Project (RRP), we expect Filipino rice farmers to be at par
with their counterparts in the ASEAN, in terms of cost efficiency and
productivity, in the next three years,” the DA chief said.
Currently,
Filipino farmers spend an average of P10 on labor, seeds, fertilizers, and
other inputs to produce one kilogram (kg) of palay (paddy rice), while the
country’s average harvest is at four metric tons (MT) per hectare (ha).
Farmers
in Thailand and Vietnam spend an equivalent P8/kg and P5/kg, respectively, to
produce one kilo of palay.
Studies
conducted by the DA-PhilMech and Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice)
show that the country’s high production cost is attributed to several factors,
namely: heavy reliance on manual operations from land preparation to
harvesting; high cost of farm inputs, notably fertilizers; lack of irrigation;
inaccessible and inadequate credit; usurious loans offered by traders; and low
productivity.
“We
are confident that with appropriate interventions and assistance under RCEF and
RRP, we can reduce our production cost to P8 per kilo and increase our national
average yield to six tons per hectare, in the next three years,” said Secretary
Dar.
“Further,
to take optimum advantage of the Duterte administration’s farm mechanization
program, we will strongly encourage RCEF farmers to collectivize, and
consolidate their farms into contiguous clusters of at least 50 to 100 hectares
each,” the DA chief added.
In
fact, Jallorina said the DA-PhilMech prioritizes provision of assistance to
clustered FCAs.
“Farm
consolidation and clustering is one of the major features of a modern,
industrialized, market-driven, sustainable and resilient Philippine
agriculture,” Secretary Dar said.
“In
all, we need to raise the productivity and incomes of Filipino farmers to
enable them to cope with the COVID-19 crisis,” he added said.
“Rest
assured, the DA family will do its utmost to propel the agriculture sector as a
major player in the nation’s economic recovery efforts,” concluded Secretary
Dar. ### (DA PhilMech and DA StratComms)
https://pia.gov.ph/press-releases/releases/1048743
Rice Exporters in India Struggle To
Fulfil Orders With Lack Of Containers And Workers
India’s rice exporters
are attempting to satiate orders because of constrained accessibility of
workers and containers at plants and the greatest taking care of port on the
east coast after novel coronavirus cases hopped in the locale. Easing back
shipments from the world’s greatest rice exporter could permit rivals like
Thailand and Vietnam to bring supplies up for the time being, and furthermore
conveys the possibility to push up worldwide costs.
Kakinada is situated in East
Godavari locale of the southern territory of Andhra Pradesh – a region that has
been announcing in excess of 1,000 new infection contaminations consistently –
represents in excess of a fourth of India’s rice shipments. In the following
barely any months, India could trade around 100,000 tons less rice for every
month as the work lack implies rice plants are working at lower limit, Rao
said.
Rice exporters working outside
Andhra Pradesh state have likewise been hit by constrained accessibility of
compartments, said Ashwin Shah, chief at Shah Nanji Nagsi Exports Pvt. Ltd, an
exporter situated in Nagpur in focal India. India was offering 5% broken
parboiled assortment RI-INBKN5-P1 at around $380 per ton on a free-on-board
premise a week ago, while Thailand was offering a similar evaluation at around
$460. African purchasers were effectively purchasing non-basmati rice, while
request is useful for basmati rice from the Middle East, said Nitin Gupta, VP
of broker Olam India’s rice business.
Indian rice exports slow on virus impact
Tuesday, 28 Jul 2020
Slowing exports: Indian workers
packing 50 kg bags of fine polished rice at a rice mill. Slowing shipments from
the world’s biggest rice exporter could allow rivals like Thailand and Vietnam
to raise supplies in the short term, and also carries the potential to push up
global prices. — AFP
MUMBAI:
India’s rice exporters are struggling to fulfil orders due to limited
availability of containers and workers at mills and the biggest handling port
on the east coast after novel coronavirus cases jumped in the region, industry
officials told Reuters.
Slowing
shipments from the world’s biggest rice exporter could allow rivals like
Thailand and Vietnam to raise supplies in the short term, and also carries the
potential to push up global prices.
“The
vessel loading rate at Kakinada port has gone down by nearly 30%, ” said BV
Krishna Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association.
Kakinada
is located in East Godavari district of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh -
a district that has been reporting more than 1,000 new virus infections every
day - accounts for more than a quarter of India’s rice shipments.
“Labourers
are working only on day shifts and not doing night shift, ” Rao said.
In the next few months, India could export around 100,000 tonnes less rice per
month as the labour shortage means rice mills are operating at lower capacity,
Rao said.
Rice
exporters operating outside Andhra Pradesh state have also been hit by limited
availability of containers, said Ashwin Shah, director at Shah Nanji Nagsi
Exports Pvt Ltd, an exporter based in Nagpur in central India.
“There
are logistical problems in executing export orders. Otherwise demand is good as
Indian rice is cheaper, ” Shah said.
India
was offering 5% broken parboiled variety at around US$380 per tonne on a
free-on-board basis last week, while Thailand was offering the same grade at
around US$460.
African buyers were actively
buying non-basmati rice, while demand is good for basmati rice from the Middle
East, said Nitin Gupta, vice president of trader Olam India’s rice business. —
Reuters
TAGS / KEYWORDS:Rice , India , Exports , Virus ,
Sri Lanka state agencies to buy 200,000 tonnes of rice in Yala
Tuesday
July 28, 2020 13:19:25
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s state agencies are planning to buy
200,000 metric tonnes of rice and the Finance Minister said it had released
10.4 billion rupees for the program.
The funds have been issued to state-run Paddy Marketing Board to
buy paddy in the upcoming Yala minor cropping season.
Harvesting is due to begin now from Kurunegala and Baticaloa.
The total harvest is expected to be 1.7 million metric tons in
the Yala season, the Department of Agriculture has said.
The government has said all types of paddy will be bought at 50
rupees a kilogram regardless of the type of rice.
Since different types of rice have different market prices, the
economic consequences of the move is not yet known.
The purchase price had also been raised from an earlier 38
rupees for Nadu and 41 rupees for Samba.
During an ongoing election campaign, famers in some areas have
called for extra water saying only 50 percent of the land could be cultivated
with the water issued.
During the Maha, main cultivation season, usually 3.5 million
tonnes of paddy is harvested. (Colombo/May28/2020)
https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-state-agencies-to-buy-200000-tonnes-of-rice-in-yala-72450/
Govt: 7,147
tons of rice distributed among flood-affected people
Published at 03:30 pm July 28th, 2020
Woman marooned in
Kurigram flood wades through water. Photo taken on Saturday, July 26, 2020 Dhaka Tribune
The government has opened 1,603 flood shelter centers in the flood
prone areas where 89,300 people have taken refuge
A total of 7,147 tons of rice has so far been distributed among
the flood affected people across the country.
“The government has distributed a total of 7,147 tons of rice
among the flood-hit people in 31 districts across the country,” said an
official release on Tuesday.
The government also distributed Tk20,212,700 in cash among flood
victims. Tk3,494,000 has also been distributed for purchasing baby food till
July 27, said the release.
In addition to that, district administrations have distributed
82,000 packets of dry food among flood-affected people.
The government has opened 1,603 flood shelter centers in the flood
prone areas where 89,300 people have taken refuge.
In flood-affected districts, a total of 901 medical teams have
been assembled, with 385 of them currently on duty.
The flood affected districts are Dhaka, Gazipur, Tangail,
Manikganj, Faridpur, Munshiganj, Rajbari, Madaripur, Shariatpur, Kishorganj,
Mymensingh, Netrokona, Jamalpur, Chandpur, Noakhali, Lakshmipur, Brahmanbaria,
Rajshahi, Naogaon, Natore, Sirajganj, Bogra, Rangpur, Kurigram, Nilphamari,
Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Hobiganj and Sunamganj.
Vietnam
emerges as the world’s No2 rice exporter
Vietnam has beaten
Thailand to become the second biggest rice exporter in the world after the
latter decided to slash rice exports due to prolonged drought and strong baht.
First half: Rice export
bags USD1.71 billion
Photo for illustration (vneconomy.vn)
Statistics show Thailand
exported 2.57 million tonnes of rice for 54.2 billion baht in the first five
months of the year, decreasing 31.9% in volume and 13.2% compared to the
corresponding period last year.
Meanwhile, Vietnam shipped
nearly 2.9 million tonnes for US$1.41 billion in the reviewed period,
increasing 5.1% in volume and 18.9% in value year on year.
Vietnam has succeeded in
selling rice at cheaper prices than Thailand, and it has recently won contracts
to export the commodity to key important markets such as China, Hong Kong, the
Philippines, and Malaysia.
In addition, Vietnam and the
European Union have ratified their free trade agreement (EVFTA), opening the
door for more Vietnamese rice to be shipped to the EU.
Those advantageous factors
helped Vietnam surpass Thailand to secure its second place just behind India.
The country is expected to sell 6.7 million tonnes of rice abroad this
year,
Thailand has cut rice export
volume due to prolonged drought and strong baht – its currency.
The Thai Rice Exporters
Association said the country’s rice export for the whole year 2020 could reach
6.5 million tonnes, a 10-year record low and even lower than the forecast 7.5
million tonnes.
According to experts, Thailand
is likely to fall from third to fifth place in the list of global rice
exporters in the next decade unless it develops a long-term policy of
increasing the competitiveness of its rice.
Africa, which consumes up to
55% of Thailand’s total rice export volume, is eyeing other exporters offering
rice at cheaper prices./.
http://en.dangcongsan.vn/economics/vietnam-emerges-as-the-world-s-no2-rice-exporter-557349.htmlhttps://dailypakistan.com.pk/28-Jul-2020/1164066
Increased Farmer Enrolment Boosts Productivity Of PFJ Amidst COVID-19
28-Jul-2020
A total of 1.5 million farmers
have been enrolled unto the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) initiative from
inception to date, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has said.
From a total of 202,000 farmers in 2017 when the initiative began, an
additional 300,000 farmers were registered onto the programme, increasing the
number of beneficiaries from the initial target of 1.2 million to the current
1.5 million in the wake of COVID-19 to enhance food production.
Presenting the mid-year review of the 2020 budget in Parliament in Accra on
July 23, 2020, Mr Ofori-Atta said due to the overwhelming success and
attractiveness of the PFJ programme, the scope had evolved to five modules.
These are the: Food Crop Development; Planting for Export and Rural Development
(PERD); Mechanisation; Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ); Greenhouse Capacity
Development modules.
Agricultural modernisation
The government launched the PFJ programme to help address the myriad problems
that had beset the agricultural sector and accounted for its low performance
over the years.
The objectives of the programme are to: ensure timely and adequate availability
of selected food crops through improved productivity; provide job opportunities
for the teeming unemployed youth; and create general awareness for all formal
workers to have either farms or backyard gardens.
“As a result of the usage of improved seeds and fertiliser by farmers,
productivity of selected food crops has increased. National maize production
increased by 71 per cent from 1.7 million mt in 2016 to 2.9 million mt in 2019,
while paddy rice increased by 34 per cent from 688,000 mt in 2016 to 925,000 mt
in 2019,” Mr Ofori-Atta said.
He said one of the most significant achievements of the PFJ initiative had been
the increase in productivity of the selected food crops as a result of the
usage of improved seeds and fertiliser distributed to farmers.
Agric and jobs
“Available data on the PFJ, based on empirical estimation from the field
throughout the country over the last three years, depicts an increase in jobs
(labour for planting, weeding, harvesting, processing, loading and offloading
of farm inputs and produce, among others),” Mr Ofori-Atta stated.
The jobs created are 746,601 in 2017, 794,944 in 2018 and 746,984 in 2019, for
a cumulative total of 2,288,529 jobs.
Food exports
Data from the Statistics, Research and Information Directorate of the Ministry
of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) shows an increase of 56.6 per cent in exports of
foodstuffs to neighbouring countries between 2016 and 2019 from 85,000 mt to
133,145 mt.
The government embarked on the construction of 30 warehouses, each with a
capacity of 1,000 MT throughout the country as part of measures to ensure food
security, reduce post-harvest losses, guarantee farmer incomes and improve
marketing.
To date, 17 of the warehouses have been completed, with the remaining scheduled
for completion by end of December 2020.
Also, 6,270 units of agric machinery and equipment have been supplied to
farmers.
Outlook
As of the end of December 2019, a number of 296 graduates had been trained on
greenhouse vegetable production at three government-established greenhouse
training centres with commercial components, each on a five-hectare piece of
land, at Dawhenya, Akumadan and Bawjiase under the Greenhouse Capacity
Development Module — Greenhouse Villages.
An additional 180 graduates were targeted for training in 2020, of which 61 had
been trained as of end June 2020. The remaining 119 graduates are scheduled to
receive their training during the second half of the year.
Under the mechanisation module, 6,270 units of agricultural machinery and
equipment were supplied to mechanisation service providers, Metropolitan,
Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and farmer-based organisations to
improve access to mechanisation services.
This has reduced drudgery in farming and has improved efficiency in the
operational activities of farmers to enhance productivity.
Mr Ofori-Atta said in the second half of the year, the government would
conclude arrangements for the importation of about US$31 million worth of farm
machinery and equipment, including hand-held equipment, tractors, combine
harvesters and rice mills under the third tranche of the Brazil “More Food
International Programme”.
Irrigation
A total of 7,141ha of land are being developed for various irrigation systems.
These include Tamne phases I & II, Mprumem phases I & II,
rehabilitation and expansion of existing schemes at Tono, Kpong Irrigation
Schemes (KIS) and Kpong Left Bank Irrigation Project (KLBIP).
In addition, the government has invested in numerous small earth dams in the
Northern, Upper East, Upper West and Savannah regions to provide farmers with
easy access to water.
As of June 2020, 11 out of 14 programmed small earth dams had been completed.
An estimated irrigable area of 224ha will be developed in the next phase of
construction.
In the second half of the year, the government will complete the resettlement
of people at Tamne and Mprumem to pave the way for completion of these
projects.
The Tono and KLBIP will be completed by December 2020. The remaining three
small earth dams, which are expected to irrigate over 80ha of crop lands, will
also be constructed at the Dawhenya Greenhouse Village, Kaniago and Ohawu
Agricultural College.
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agriculture includes;
- Increase in prices of agricultural inputs
- Significant post-harvest losses
- Decrease in labour
https://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/business/news/202007/421380.php
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