Pakistan in talks with China,
Iran for cross-listing of commodities
Published: November 30, 2017
Cotton waiting to be picked sits
in a field. PHOTO: REUTERS
KARACHI: Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX) – the
first and only trading platform for commodities including agricultural products
and precious metals – has initiated dialogue with China and Iran for
cross-listing of commodities in a bid to expand scope of the exchange, a top
official disclosed.
Under the arrangement, Chinese and Iranian
commodities will be bought and sold through PMEX while Pakistan’s commodities
could be traded at Chinese and Iranian exchanges.
In an
interview with The Express Tribune, PMEX Managing Director Ejaz Ali Shah
voiced hope that the cross-listing of commodities would encourage investors to
trade in Pakistan’s products that had high demand in the global market.
The new global trading platform is expected
to start running in the next one year. Initially, Pakistan’s rice and cotton
may be listed in China and Iran and later other agricultural products will be added.
Shah insisted that the agricultural industry
would greatly benefit from the global platform as Pakistan would be able to
sell its products to regional countries in a short span of time. “This way,
Pakistan will tap a bigger market and its barren lands will come under
plantations,” he said.
Iran has expressed interest in getting its
petroleum products listed on PMEX whereas Pakistan’s basmati rice may be sold
through the Iranian exchange. China, on the other hand, is a big importer of
food products and it can also purchase Pakistan’s commodities through the
cross-listing programme.
Shah emphasised that the selection of
commodities for cross-listing would be done through mutual consultation.
“We will give priority to those Pakistani
products that have a significant demand in Chinese and Iranian markets whereas
PMEX will encourage listing of those commodities that are cheap alternatives of
products which Pakistan imports,” he said.
The greatest benefit of the cross-listing
was savings in foreign exchange because Pakistan’s traders would be able to
import goods in regional currencies, he revealed.
More than 28,000 accounts had been opened at
PMEX, but inactive accounts were later blocked. At present, 8,000 active
accounts are registered with the exchange.
Apart from this, 105 brokers are associated
with the exchange, but only 65 are active. The number of brokers is expected to
increase after the cross-listing of commodities.
Shah pointed out that the interest of
traders and businessmen was increasing in PMEX following the introduction of
new products.
“The next two years are very important for
the exchange; its offices have been opened in Lahore and Islamabad as well in
an attempt to facilitate the traders,” he said.
PMEX’s turnover, which was valued at Rs5 billion
per day last year, has now increased to an average of Rs6 billion.
Shah said many agricultural goods could be
traded through PMEX, but to achieve that new warehouse construction and capital
investment in logistics were necessary.
Owing to a lack of goods storages and a poor
logistics mechanism, Pakistan suffers heavy losses every year.
“Government and banks need to collectively
pay attention to bringing improvement in warehousing facilities in the country.
The government has the required land whereas banks can provide vital
financing,” he suggested.
He also
disclosed that preparations for commodity trading according to Islamic
principles had been completed. Now, investors will be able to trade in crude
oil in line with Shariah principles.
Published in The Express
Tribune, November 30th, 2017
Pakistan
to send a delegation of rice exporters to Sri Lanka
Thu, Nov 30, 2017, 09:01 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Thu, Nov 30, 2017, 09:01 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Acting
chairman of REAP Rafique Suleman along with former chairman Abdul Rahim Janoo
and Asif Polani met with Consul General of Sri Lanka in Karachi G L Gnanatheva
to discuss their visit.
|
|
Suleman
apprised Gnanatheva regarding a communication received from the Pakistani High
Commission in Colombo recommending to send a REAP delegation on urgent basis as
Sri Lanka is facing shortage of rice.
Suleman
said they are having a good quality crop of Pakistani Basmati and Irri-6 rice
and they can export good quantity of rice with competitive prices.
"It
is therefore decided to send a (15) members high profile REAP�s trade delegation to Sri Lanka
in the month of December 2017 for the promotion and marketing of Pakistani
rice."
He
said the delegation will also discuss to increase the Basmati rice quota which
is remaining at 6,000 tons for many years.
Rice exporters
to visit Sri Lanka
November
30, 2017
SHARE :
Online
ISLAMABAD - A delegation of Rice Exporters Association
of Pakistan (REAP), will undertake a visit to Sri Lanka next month to explore
the possibility of expanding export of Pakistan’s rice to that country.
REAP said a three-member delegation of REAP,
led by its acting chairman Rafique Suleman, held a meeting with Consul General
of Sri Lanka in Karachi G L
Gnanatheva to discuss the forthcoming visit of the REAP delegation
to Sri Lanka .
The acting chairman REAP Rafique Suleman, while
discussing the details of the visit of the
association to Sri Lank, told the Sri Lankan Consul General that the visit has been arranged on the
invitation from Pakistani High Commission in Colombo, who had asked the REAP to
send a delegation to Sri Lanka to
further promote trade ties between the two countries.
He said presently Sri Lanka is facing shortage
of rice and interested to
import rice from Pakistan due to its high
standard and international quality.
“This year we are having a good quality crop of
Basmati and Irri-6 rice and we
can export good quantity of rice with
competitive prices to many countries including Sri Lanka , “ said Rafique
Suleman.
During the visit , this delegation will have
meetings with President of Sri Lanka ,
Prime Minister of Sri Lanka ,
Ministers for Trade, Commerce, Transport as well as officials of Ceylon Chamber
of Commerce & National Chamber of Commerce, Colombo and leading rice importers. “We will also discuss to increase
the Basmati rice quota
which is stagnant to 6,000 metric tons since many years,” he added
Demand for Pak
rice increases
Demand for Pak
rice increases
November
30, 2017
APP
ISLAMABAD - Demand of Pakistani rice has increased across the world due to its
special fragrance, colour and quality. A spokesman of Agriculture Department
said the Agriculture Department has launched a special campaign about
poison-free paddy crops this year. He said international rice companies have lauded the initiative of the
agriculture department. Pakistan produces world class rice and has a well developed rice processing industry as proved by its exports to
high-end and the most sensitive markets around the world. “We want to move
towards value-added products to increase exports,” he said.
More by
Demand for Pakistani rice increased across world
ISLAMABAD: Demand for Pakistani
rice has increased due to its special fragrance, colour and quality across the
world.
A spokesman of Agriculture
Department talking to Radio Pakistan said the Agriculture Department launched a
special campaign about poison free paddy crops this year.
He said international rice export
companies have lauded the initiative of the agriculture department.
Pakistan produces world class
rice and has a well developed rice processing industry as proven by its exports
to high-end and the most sensitive markets around the world.
“We want to move towards value-added
products to increase exports,” he added.
Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2017
Related News
https://www.brecorder.com/2017/11/29/384059/demand-of-pakistani-rice-increased-across-world/
Palaniswami releases new rice variety, MGR 100
TNN | Updated: Nov
30, 2017, 00:35 IST
Thanjavur: Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami
released a new rice variety 'MGR 100', developed by the Tamil Nadu Agriculture
University (TNAU) - in memory of the late AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran on his
birth centenary celebrations held here on Wednesday. The new variety which is
the rechristened nomenclature of CO 52, would give high yield, superior grain
quality and pest and disease resistance, officials said.
This new variety was on the sequel of TNAU's first hybrid rice, MGR (COR H1) released in 1994. This new variety would be a good alternate for BPT 5204. Over a period of six years, trials were conducted and cultivated in 158 locations in 21 districts. Yields crossed 7,000 kg per hectare in 24 locations, a senior official from Aduthurai Rice Research Institute said. The trials were conducted again till the year 2016 in 36 locations across the state.
The rice would mature in 130 to 135 days. Having medium tall in stature, the variety would be long droopy panicles with highly acceptable plant characters. The variety was recommended for large-scale demonstration based on its high yield, by the university. Now, the university awaits the gazetting of the variety by the Central seed subcommittee for variety release and notification.
Earlier too TNAU had released rice varieties named after chief ministers. In 1970, it brought out Karuna (CO 33) by crossing IR 8 and ADT 27 which was a short duration paddy variety, while in 1993 it had come out with JJ 92 (ADT 41) that is a white aromatic rice and a mutant of Basmati.
Korea Crop
production research boosted by LemnaTec's Greenhouse Scanalyzer
·
Print
·
Email
Wednesday, 29 November 2017 06:49
This year,
Korea's crop production has been severely damaged by prolonged dry weather
conditions, threatening food security for a large part of its population. It is
said that the country has experienced its most severe drought since 2001 and
will soon experience major flooding as a result of the severe droughts
The Food and Agriculture
Organisation has recommended the promotion of drought-tolerant crops and
varieties to increase the resilience of farmers and households to natural
disasters and climate change.
Lemnatec’s Greenhouse Scanalyzer
will be in the new Crop Phenomics Center, which will investigate Korea's key
crops such as rice and soybean for improved productivity and climate
resilience. Which, in turn, will help to develop resource-efficient varieties
that deliver adequate phenotypes for improved future agriculture.
The scanalyzer enables non-invasive
day-by-day phenotyping of crop plants such as rice or soybean and is a powerful
tool for phenotyping research. Plants can be characterized by their phenotypic
performance according to their genetic background and imposed environmental
factors. It also compromises 1012 plant carriers on conveyors that move plants
to imaging cabinets containing visible, near-infrared, and infrared cameras.
http://www.fareasternagriculture.com/crops/processing-a-storage/korea-crop-production-research-boosted-by-lemnatec-s-greenhouse-scanalyzer29
NOVEMBER 2017
Rice Snack Pellets Market Outlook, Opportunities and
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for PDF Sample for in depth information @ https://www.360marketupdates.com/enquiry/request-sample/11096863
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/trichy/palaniswami-releases-new-rice-variety-mgr-100/articleshow/61856178.cms
USA Rice Outlook Conference Peers Into the Futures Market
The upcoming USA Rice Outlook Conference offers two separate
sessions featuring Jason Wheeler, a risk management expert with White
Commercial Corporation. At the first
session, Futures Market 101, Jason will explain how the futures market can be
used by rice farmers to create a diversified portfolio. In session two, Jason takes a deeper dive
into the material and imparts some "rules of the road," pitfalls, and
strategic guidance.
Check your program guide for session times and locations, and if
you haven't registered yet, there's still a little time to secure your...future
TV Chef Sara Moulton's Weeknight Meals Goes to Arkansas
By Michael Klein
HUMPHREY, AR -- TV celebrity chef Sara Moulton visited rice country
for a second time last spring to film an episode for the latest season of her
series, Sara's Weeknight Meals. Her New
York-based production team joined up with technical and culinary crews out of
Little Rock to take over 5 Oaks Lodge here for the episode called
"Arkansas Eats."
Moulton enlisted the help, and family recipes, of Hickory Ridge,
Arkansas, rice farmer Eric Vaught, his wife Kelly, and their three children,
Baxley, Sawyer, and Sam.
"On the show, we showcase quick, tasty home cooked meals,
eaten with family and cooked with love," Moulton said. "Eric shared his recipe for fried
catfish and something they call 'Rice Puppies,' his take on hushpuppies. They were delicious - but I am a sucker for
fried food."
Vaught took Moulton out into some flooded rice fields and talked
with her about the unique relationship between rice and waterfowl, and the
common link that is water.
"Sara knew rice grew in water but was surprised to learn it
was only a few inches," Vaught said. "Without an explanation, it is
understandable that someone would see a 'flooded' rice field and not realize
how little water we actually use."
Vaught also explained how U.S. rice farmers use technology to
require less water today than they did just 15 or 20 years ago.
"Sara enjoyed hearing about how we use water to create
wildlife habitat that is obviously good for the ecosystem, but also helps us
prepare the fields for the next year in a way that reduces our environmental
footprint," he added. "And why
wouldn't she? The conservation record of U.S.-grown rice is a great one."
Vaught gave her some pointers for using duck calls, but the pair
agreed her cooking was better than her calling.
Check local listings for air times in your area and read about the
episode on Sara's website at www.saramoulton.com.
· PAKISTAN
Government to review FTAs with different countries:
minister
Federal Minister for Commerce Pervaiz Malik has assured the rice
exporters for their interests, saying that the government is reviewing Free
Trade Agreements (FTAs) with different countries and rice exporters' issues
will be considered also while revising these agreements. The Minister was
speaking at the 9th Export Trophy function arranged by the Rice Exporters
Association of Pakistan (REAP) here the other day.
REAP Chairman Sami Ullah Naeem, Pir Nazim Hussain Shah, Shahzad Ali Malik and a large number of rice exporters from across the country were present on this occasion. He told that the government has also constituted a committee to review the cost of doing business for different industrial sectors so as to develop some mechanism for bringing it down enabling our export oriented industry to be competitive in the international market. He said that the input cost of rice exporters will also be reviewed and facilitated so as it can compete with other rice exporting countries.
The Minister said that the committee reviewing cost of doing business will present a formula to bring it down for Pakistani industry by either proposing rebate, bringing down utility charges or any other concession. He assured that the government was committed to address this issue properly and come up with a workable formula.
He said that we had given sufficient time to cotton and textile sectors and would also like to sit with rice exporters to boost this second biggest export sector of the country. He said that the government was ready to help the rice exporters in branding and assist them in participating in international exhibitions.
Responding to a demand of declaring rice export sector as Industry, he showed his willingness but asked the exporters to give him solid references and proposal in this regard. He admitted that the business community had always supported the PML-N and it has a right on the government. He said that it is the time that government also support the businessmen and industrialists. He said that the government would come up their expectations.
He said that though export sector had shown a 10 percent increase during last four months as compared and rice sector alone showed 16 percent increase. However, he said that we have to do more. Earlier REAP Chairman Sami Ullah Naeem in his address asked the government for giving a support package to the rice exporting sector and claimed that if given a chance and their proposal is expected it can jump to from US $ 2 billion dollars to $2.5 billion dollar within a year.
He asked for including rice sector in PM's 300 billion package announced for different five exporting sectors. He asked for giving rice sector status of industry, matching grants for listing fee of Pakistani brands at international stores, special export rebate to different segments such as basmati, non-basmati and brown rice exporters and for launching a campaign to create awareness about Pakistani rice which meet the international phytosanitary and sanitary standards.
REAP Chairman Sami Ullah Naeem, Pir Nazim Hussain Shah, Shahzad Ali Malik and a large number of rice exporters from across the country were present on this occasion. He told that the government has also constituted a committee to review the cost of doing business for different industrial sectors so as to develop some mechanism for bringing it down enabling our export oriented industry to be competitive in the international market. He said that the input cost of rice exporters will also be reviewed and facilitated so as it can compete with other rice exporting countries.
The Minister said that the committee reviewing cost of doing business will present a formula to bring it down for Pakistani industry by either proposing rebate, bringing down utility charges or any other concession. He assured that the government was committed to address this issue properly and come up with a workable formula.
He said that we had given sufficient time to cotton and textile sectors and would also like to sit with rice exporters to boost this second biggest export sector of the country. He said that the government was ready to help the rice exporters in branding and assist them in participating in international exhibitions.
Responding to a demand of declaring rice export sector as Industry, he showed his willingness but asked the exporters to give him solid references and proposal in this regard. He admitted that the business community had always supported the PML-N and it has a right on the government. He said that it is the time that government also support the businessmen and industrialists. He said that the government would come up their expectations.
He said that though export sector had shown a 10 percent increase during last four months as compared and rice sector alone showed 16 percent increase. However, he said that we have to do more. Earlier REAP Chairman Sami Ullah Naeem in his address asked the government for giving a support package to the rice exporting sector and claimed that if given a chance and their proposal is expected it can jump to from US $ 2 billion dollars to $2.5 billion dollar within a year.
He asked for including rice sector in PM's 300 billion package announced for different five exporting sectors. He asked for giving rice sector status of industry, matching grants for listing fee of Pakistani brands at international stores, special export rebate to different segments such as basmati, non-basmati and brown rice exporters and for launching a campaign to create awareness about Pakistani rice which meet the international phytosanitary and sanitary standards.
Louisiana Ratoon Rice Not Enough to Make Up
From First Crop Yields
NOVEMBER 28, 2017 12:00 PM
By Ashley
Davenport
Farm Journal Broadcast
Multimedia Editor
Farm Journal Broadcast
Multimedia Editor
Louisiana rice farmers are nearly
finished with ratoon rice, or the second crop. Yields have been strong, but it
might not be enough to offset the lackluster first crop harvest.
Craig Gautreaux of the Louisiana State University’s AgCenter reports on AgDay above.
Craig Gautreaux of the Louisiana State University’s AgCenter reports on AgDay above.
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Basmati Billionaires: 'We are born in rice'
November
29, 2017 09:04 IST
The promoter family of KRBL reaps
gains from high demand for the rice variety in India and overseas.
The promoters of KRBL, which makes
the popular India Gate basmati rice, raised Rs 15 crores through an initial
public offering in 1995.
Twenty-two years later, the
country’s most profitable basmati rice company has a market capitalisation of
nearly Rs 15,000 crores.
The KRBL stock has made handsome gains since last November, rising 194 per cent from a 52-week-low of Rs 228.90 to hit a new high of Rs 672.90 early this month. It closed at Rs 624.35 on the BSE on Tuesday.
The rally has turned the promoter family, Anil Mittal and brothers, into the country’s first basmati billionaire. With their 59 per cent stake in the company, the family’s wealth is now estimated at Rs 8,700 crores ($1 billion is equal to Rs 6,517 crores at the current exchange rate).
The KRBL stock has made handsome gains since last November, rising 194 per cent from a 52-week-low of Rs 228.90 to hit a new high of Rs 672.90 early this month. It closed at Rs 624.35 on the BSE on Tuesday.
The rally has turned the promoter family, Anil Mittal and brothers, into the country’s first basmati billionaire. With their 59 per cent stake in the company, the family’s wealth is now estimated at Rs 8,700 crores ($1 billion is equal to Rs 6,517 crores at the current exchange rate).
IMAGE:
Anil Mittal (in a blue vest), chairman and managing director, KRBL, that
produces and markets India Gate rice, receiving the Agriculture Leadership
Award 2017 at the 10th Global Agriculture Leadership Awards Committee 2017 for
dominant position in agro exports. Courtesy: India Gate Rice MENA/Facebook.
KRBL, named after Mittal’s
forefathers Khushi Ram and Behari Lal, the two brothers who founded this
company in Pakistan’s Lyallpur in 1989 and the family shifted to India in 1947,
earned a record profit of Rs 400 crores on revenues of Rs 3,148 crore last
year.
During the first half of FY18, its profit surged 35 per cent to Rs 242 crores.
Two of KRBL’s listed peers -- LT Foods and Kohinoor Foods -- were nowhere close to its profitability. LT Foods, which clocked revenues similar to KRBL, made a profit of Rs 71 crores in the first half of 2017-2018, while Kohinoor’s profit was just Rs 5 crores.
During the first half of FY18, its profit surged 35 per cent to Rs 242 crores.
Two of KRBL’s listed peers -- LT Foods and Kohinoor Foods -- were nowhere close to its profitability. LT Foods, which clocked revenues similar to KRBL, made a profit of Rs 71 crores in the first half of 2017-2018, while Kohinoor’s profit was just Rs 5 crores.
“We feel proud about this growth in
valuations. The main driver is our brand and its demand in India and overseas.
Our rice commands a premium in the domestic market and export realisation is
higher than industry average,” said Mittal, chairman and managing director,
KRBL.
Export brings little over one-third of the revenues, and the company claims a 33 per cent share in the domestic branded basmati market.
Export brings little over one-third of the revenues, and the company claims a 33 per cent share in the domestic branded basmati market.
Being a diabetic, Mittal avoids
rice, but he enjoys the aroma of his success. He counts the names of top
domestic and global food companies that struggled to carve success in the
basmati rice market. Multinationals like Cargill, Olam, Unilever, and PepsiCo
tried their hands years ago and decided to quit.
Mittal recalls how a meeting was
set between him and Cargill’s management in Gurgaon to discuss business. “They
wanted the same quality of rice like India Gate. They wanted me to create my
own competition. I was told that there is a queue of people waiting to sell to
Cargill. But I told them that I am not desperate. I told them that they have
touched a wrong business. They went out of basmati in two years.”
But Mittal has had his learning from these MNCs. “You get to learn excellent systems and transparency from these big multinationals.”
Domestic FMCG major ITC also falls in the list of companies that experimented with basmati. Patanjali is among the new entrants. “Patanjali is doing fantastic in many products but I am yet to see their success in rice,” said Mittal, whose company is nearly debt free, except a loan of Rs 95 crores in the wind power business.
“We are born in rice. We have worked day and night. Rice is not a business where you stop working after 6 pm. You have to be into it,” says the 66-year-old businessman, who started his career with rice trading in early 1970s and went on to set up the company’s first rice plant in 1990 by investing Rs 25 lakhs. From a milling capacity of six tonnes an hour and a single plant, KRBL today has four plants with a total capacity of 195 tonnes an hour.
But Mittal has had his learning from these MNCs. “You get to learn excellent systems and transparency from these big multinationals.”
Domestic FMCG major ITC also falls in the list of companies that experimented with basmati. Patanjali is among the new entrants. “Patanjali is doing fantastic in many products but I am yet to see their success in rice,” said Mittal, whose company is nearly debt free, except a loan of Rs 95 crores in the wind power business.
“We are born in rice. We have worked day and night. Rice is not a business where you stop working after 6 pm. You have to be into it,” says the 66-year-old businessman, who started his career with rice trading in early 1970s and went on to set up the company’s first rice plant in 1990 by investing Rs 25 lakhs. From a milling capacity of six tonnes an hour and a single plant, KRBL today has four plants with a total capacity of 195 tonnes an hour.
Mittal says the Indian market is
very difficult. “Outside, if you need paddy for rice production, you just need
to call a broker and you will get clean, dry paddy to your specifications.
Here, you have to buy 25 to 30 bags from every mandi (wholesale
market). When paddy is harvested, we end up procuring from 300 to 400 mandis in
Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh,” he says.
From the stage of procurement till the paddy enters a plant, he says, there are several challenges, such as gaps in weighing and loss in transportation. “There is connivance at various levels of this chain. You have to keep your eyes open. So many rice varieties look like basmati, and if you don’t have the expertise, you could land in trouble. We have a system that enables us to sustain competition and maintain quality.”
Another thing that can kill you is high interest burden, explains Mittal. “If the interest outgo is under control and you are able to command a good price in the market, you can taste success.” He says losing money is not advisable in any business even if you have deep pockets.
KRBL, backed by its financial strengths, builds large quantities of rice stocks in years when the paddy price is low. The company had a stock of 300,000 tonnes of rice as of September 30. This stock alone is worth over Rs 1,500 crores. The cost of this rice is just Rs 36 a kg against the current paddy price of Rs 32 (which translates into a rice cost of Rs 50 to Rs 55 a kg).
From the stage of procurement till the paddy enters a plant, he says, there are several challenges, such as gaps in weighing and loss in transportation. “There is connivance at various levels of this chain. You have to keep your eyes open. So many rice varieties look like basmati, and if you don’t have the expertise, you could land in trouble. We have a system that enables us to sustain competition and maintain quality.”
Another thing that can kill you is high interest burden, explains Mittal. “If the interest outgo is under control and you are able to command a good price in the market, you can taste success.” He says losing money is not advisable in any business even if you have deep pockets.
KRBL, backed by its financial strengths, builds large quantities of rice stocks in years when the paddy price is low. The company had a stock of 300,000 tonnes of rice as of September 30. This stock alone is worth over Rs 1,500 crores. The cost of this rice is just Rs 36 a kg against the current paddy price of Rs 32 (which translates into a rice cost of Rs 50 to Rs 55 a kg).
IMAGE:
India Gate basmati rice brings the family together is the message of an
advertisement from the company. Courtesy: India Gate.
“I am sitting in a very comfortable
position. My export realisation is Rs 80 a kg, and in domestic, it is around Rs
50-60 a kg,” he says.
Of the 100 million tonnes rice annually produced in India, Mittal says only 6 per cent is basmati. “But, of this 6 million, only two million tonnes is domestic consumption, and the rest is exported. This two million can more than double in the next few years. We are ready. We have to take this company from Rs 15,000 crores to Rs 30,000 crores,” he says.
Mittal is certain that the family will never trade in company’s shares. “Our position will remain unchanged even if the share goes up to Rs 900 tomorrow or comes down for any reason. Our business is to make money from rice,” he says.
Of the 100 million tonnes rice annually produced in India, Mittal says only 6 per cent is basmati. “But, of this 6 million, only two million tonnes is domestic consumption, and the rest is exported. This two million can more than double in the next few years. We are ready. We have to take this company from Rs 15,000 crores to Rs 30,000 crores,” he says.
Mittal is certain that the family will never trade in company’s shares. “Our position will remain unchanged even if the share goes up to Rs 900 tomorrow or comes down for any reason. Our business is to make money from rice,” he says.
Ajay
Modihttp://www.rediff.com/business/report/basmati-billionaires-we-are-born-in-rice/20171129.htm
Group to be established to prevent oversupply of rice
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8:02 pm, November 29, 2017
Jiji PressTOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japan’s
ruling Liberal Democratic Party adopted a proposal on Tuesday for establishing
a private sector-led national organization that will collect supply-demand
information on rice to prevent an oversupply.
The decision reflects worries about an excessive supply of rice
after the abolition of the government’s decades-old “gentan” rice production
adjustment system in fiscal 2018, which starts next April.
The new organization is expected to be set up by the end of the
year, at the earliest, LDP sources said.
With no binding power, however, the organization may have
difficulty playing an effective role in coordinating supply and demand, some
experts said.
Under the proposal, the envisaged organization will be joined mainly
by the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, or JA-Zenchu, rice
wholesalers and associations of restaurant operators and exporters, the sources
said.
Regarding low-priced rice sought by restaurant operators, the
new organization is expected to encourage such businesses to conclude purchase
deals with farmers before harvesting or multiyear agreements.
The government plans to provide the organization with
information held by local governments on rice planting. The new organization is
also expected to gather information on production benchmarks to be indicated to
farmers by prefecture-based groups.
Launched on a full scale in 1971, the gentan policy has set
targets by prefecture of the acreage under cultivation for rice as staple food
in order to prevent rice prices from falling due to overproduction.
The JA group has called for nationwide supply-demand adjustment
after the targets are abolished in fiscal 2018, along with subsidies of ¥7,500
per 10 ares of rice fields paid to farmers who work in line with the targets.
In 2013, the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe decided
to end the state output control system as early as fiscal 2018.
Since fiscal 2014, the government has urged farmers to make rice
for animal feed, instead of rice for human consumption as staple food, offering
massive subsidies.
The initiative has successfully reduced the acreage of fields
for rice as staple food, preventing excessive planting of such rice for three
years in a row from fiscal 2015.
But there are concerns that Japan may see a surplus of rice
again in fiscal 2018 and beyond due to the planned scrapping of the state-set
production targets, people familiar with the matter said.
In the Oct. 22 election for the House of Representatives, the
LDP pledged to help create a national organization to promote rice production
in line with demand after the abolition of the gentan policy.
At an agriculture-related meeting
of the LDP on Tuesday, participants pointed to strong concern in rural areas
over the reversal of the policy that has been in place for more than 40 years.
They agreed to do all they can to secure a budget for policy steps to dispel
worries among farmers.Speech
vhttp://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004095036
Iran, Kazakhstan keen to boost agricultural
ties: minister
Source:
Xinhua| 2017-11-29 01:01:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan
TEHRAN, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran and
Kazakhstan are eager to expand their ties in the field of agricultural
production and activities, Iran's Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati was
quoted as saying by Financial Tribune daily on Tuesday.
"We are an importer of barley, oilseeds, red meat and light
and heavy livestock, and Kazakhstan can supply our demand in these areas,"
the Iranian minister said in a meeting with the visiting Kazakh Minister of
Agriculture Askar Myrzakhmetov.
"Also, Iran is among the biggest producers of dairy, milk
powder, eggs and poultry, for which there is a demand in Kazakhstan and can be
supplied by Iran," Hojjati said.
Besides, "Iran is the biggest producer of coldwater fish
and trout in the world. We are ready to export these products and cooperate in
producing these types of fish in Kazakhstan," he said.
For his turn, Myrzakhmetov said his country is ready to meet
part of Iran's demand for rice by cultivating the seeds of Iranian rice in
Kazakh farmlands.
In the meantime, "we are not able to produce oranges and
tangerines in Kazakhstan and are willing to import them from Iran as part of
long-term contracts," he was quoted as saying.
·
NATIONAL
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ENERGY
·
ECONOMY
·
PEOPLE
Minister Calls for Reinstating Rice Import Ban
1.
Economy
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Minister Calls for Reinstating Rice
Import Ban
In a letter to the Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade
Mohammad Shariatmadari, Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati has called for
reinstating the ban on rice imports until further notice due to excessive
imports.
More than 1.06 million tons of
rice worth over $1 billion were imported during the seven months to Oct. 22,
indicating a 40% rise in weight compared with last year’s similar period, which
exceed domestic demand when added to the annual local production, Mehr News
Agency reported on Monday.
Every year, during the rice
harvest season, the government bans rice imports to support local farmers and
production. Import tariffs have increased from 22% four years ago to 40% at
present for the same reason.
The temporary ban was lifted last
Tuesday as per a directive by the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade and
was supposed to last until July 22, 2018.
“We need imports, but imports
that are limited and controlled,” Hojjati said earlier.
Iranians consume 3 million tons
of rice a year while domestic production stands at 2.2 million tons. Therefore,
there is a need for around 800,000 tons of imports every year.
According to the Central and West
Asia Rice Center, with around 54% of Central and West Asia’s paddy fields
located in Iran, the country accounts for 61% of the regions’ combined rice
production.
The two northern provinces of
Gilan and Mazandaran are home to a majority of Iran’s paddy fields.
Soon-to-be
partnership to expand rice exports
Sok Chan / Khmer Times Share:
Australia-based rice exporter
SunRice is negotiating an agreement with local conglomerate Soma Group to export
Cambodian rice to Australia, according to a senior official from the Ministry
of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).
A memorandum of understanding
(MoU) to further negotiations between the companies was already signed last
week in Australia, presided by Cambodian Minister of Agriculture Veng Sakhon.
Hean Vanhan, director-general of
agriculture at MAFF, told Khmer Times yesterday that the ministry is acting as
facilitator during the talks.
“The result of the meeting
between SunRice and Soma is positive. Sun Rice is interested in Soma, and they
will do further discussion,” Mr Vanhan said.
Talks are now focused on whether
Soma Group will sell its produce directly to the Australian agricultural giant,
or whether SunRice will partner up with the Cambodian company to invest in the
local agriculture sector and export Cambodian rice under its own brand, Mr
Vanhan revealed.
“If Soma and SunRice bring milled
rice from Cambodia to process it in Australia their market will be much
bigger,” Mr Vanhan said. “Soma will send a sample of rice to Australia for
analysis to check whether or not this is possible,” he said.
SunRice supplies about 720,000
tonnes of milled rice per year to 50 different countries. However, the company
is only capable of producing 600,000 tonnes, so they are seeking new
partnerships to meet demand for their products, Mr Vanhan explained.
He said that SunRise is looking
for partners that have quality products and are able to maintain a stable
supply, adding that it is a great opportunity as Cambodia had a 5-million ton
rice surplus last year.
Mr Vanhan pointed out that
SunRice is Australia’s biggest rice exporting company and has one of the most
recognisable brands of the Oceanian nation.
From January to September 2017,
Cambodia exported nearly 422,000 tonnes of milled rice, an increase of more
than 16.5 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the
latest report from the secretariat of the One Window Service for Rice Export
Formality.
The report finds that nearly 70
countries have been importing Cambodian rice, with China being the largest
buyer, importing more than 120,000 tonnes of Cambodian rice, followed by
France, with over 50,000 tonnes, and Poland, who buys around 35,000 tonnes.
KHMER TIMES
Thursday,
November 30, 2017
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Vietnam Donates Rice to Cuba
The symbolic delivery took place in the northern port
city of Haiphong, the same place where in times of the liberation war, Vietnam
received sugar and other inputs from the island in a gesture of solidarity that
never expected anything in return.
But this is a town of grateful memory and now that Cuba suffered the ravages of a terrible hurricane, it once again reached out its hand.
The donation has the additional merit of being carried out when the Vienamese nation is recovering from recent and successive typhoons and floods that cause great human and material losses.
Cuban First Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Antonio Carricarte; the island's ambassador here, Lianys Torres; Deputy Director General of the Vietnamese State Reserve, Le Van Thoi; and authorities of the Haiphong People's Committee, attended the event.
sgl/iff/lma/asg/gdc
But this is a town of grateful memory and now that Cuba suffered the ravages of a terrible hurricane, it once again reached out its hand.
The donation has the additional merit of being carried out when the Vienamese nation is recovering from recent and successive typhoons and floods that cause great human and material losses.
Cuban First Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Antonio Carricarte; the island's ambassador here, Lianys Torres; Deputy Director General of the Vietnamese State Reserve, Le Van Thoi; and authorities of the Haiphong People's Committee, attended the event.
sgl/iff/lma/asg/gdc
http://plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=21618&SEO=vietnam-donates-rice-to-cuba
Negros
rice pest destroys P8.4-M crops
Share
it!
Published November
29, 2017, 10:00 PM
By Mark L. Garcia
Bacolod City — P8.4 million worth
of rice crops have been destroyed by an emerging pest in Sipalay City, Negros
Occidental, the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) said.
For rice farmers in Sipalay, the
losses from the Rice Grain Bug (RGB) could be bigger: The Philippine Crop
Insurance Corporation does not consider losses from RGB insurable.
OPA reported that as of November
22, the damage and production losses from the bug was P8,376,856.10. RGB has
infested 221.24 hectares, affecting 208 farmers.
Provincial Agriculturist Japhet
Masculino said Wednesday Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. has
requested the state insurance agency through its president Jovy Bernabe to
include the damages from RGB as insurable.
“It was not included in the PCIC
as it is an emerging pest,” Masculino said. The bug was detected only last
August.
PCIC Provincial Office
Manager Jose Maria Torres said Marañon’s request is being considered
by the PCIC board, and hopefully RGB will make the list next year.
To prevent the spread of the bug,
OPA has distributed 25 packs of Metarhizium anisopliae, a kind of
bio-controlling fungus supplied by the Department of Agriculture Regional Field
Office Regional Crop Protection Center.
The OPA continues to monitor the
situation together with the City Agriculturist Office Crop Protection.
The Rice Grain Bug looks like a
black ant and it sucks the liquid in developing grains.
The pest is half the size of Rice
Black Bug (RBB), with bigger front legs.
Masculino said the RGB is
commonly found in leguminous plants but eventually feeds on rice that is
ripening and ready for harvest.
The Sipalay government has been
conducting pest control operations since November 20.
Masculino and OPA staff visited
the affected areas last Monday to brief farmers on RGB and how to protect their
crops from further damage.
NOVEMBER 29, 2017 / 7:59 AM / A DAY AGO
Vietnam's Jan-Nov coffee exports down, rice up
Reuters Staff
2 MIN READ
HANOI, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Vietnam’s coffee exports are expected to have
fallen an estimated 22.4 percent in the first 11 months of this year from a
year earlier, while rice shipments are seen to have risen 24.1 percent, the
General Statistics Office said in a report on Wednesday.
COFFEE
Coffee exports from Vietnam will drop an estimated 22.4 percent in
January-Nov from the same time last year to 1.27 million tonnes (21.2 million
60-kg bags).
Export revenue was estimated to edge down 3.6 percent on year to
$2.9 billion, the report said.
November shipments of beans in Vietnam, the world’s largest robusta
producer, are estimated at 85,000 tonnes, higher than October, the report said.
RICE
Eleven-month rice exports from the world’s third-largest shipper of
the grain were forecast to rise 24.1 percent to 5.51 million tonnes. Revenue
from the January-November rice exports was seen rising 24.9 percent
year-on-year to $2.5 billion.
Vietnam would ship an estimated 420,000 tonnes of rice in November,
compared to 483,000 tonnes in October, the report said.
ENERGY
Vietnam’s January-November crude oil exports were seen unchanged
from last year at an estimated 6.34 million tonnes, or 138,600 barrels per day
(bpd).
Crude oil export revenue in the eleven-month period rose 22.1
percent to $2.62 billion.
Oil product imports increased 9.9 percent to an estimated 11.7
million tonnes, while the value of imports jumped 39.3 percent to $6.26
billion.
Vietnam’s liquefied petroleum gas imports during the period
increased 11.6 percent from a year earlier to 1.26 million tonnes. (Reporting by
Mi Nguyen; Editing by Sunil Nair)
Public-Private
Sector Collaboration Will Boost Food Production – Mrs Osinbajo
The Wife of the Vice-President,
Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo, has called for more public-private sector collaboration in
efforts to boost food production in the country.
Osinbajo made the call Wednesday
in Abuja at the first Annual NACCIMA-NIRSAL Agribusiness and Policy Linkage
Conference, which has “Implementing the Agriculture Component of the Economic
Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP)’’ as its theme.
The conference was organised by
the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and
Agriculture (NACCIMA) in collaboration with the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk
Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL).
Osinbajo stressed the need for
increased collaboration between the organised private sector and the public
sector, including the financial institutions, to boost food production.
“I have been reliably informed
that Nigeria has made giant strides in agriculture, especially in rice which is
one of our favourite foods in Nigeria.
“The president of Rice Farmers Association
of Nigeria (RIFAN) said that Nigeria’s rice production has increased and he
attributed the increase to the Federal Government’s Anchor Borrowers’
Programme.
“The achievement recorded was as
a result of the collective efforts of all the relevant stakeholders in the
agricultural sector and the hard work of our farmers,” she said.
Osinbajo, however, emphasised the
need for a stronger desire among stakeholders to team up to answer the call of
Nigerians “who are daily asking for means to feed themselves and get meaningful
employment opportunities’’.
She urged conference to come up
with pragmatic decisions that would benefit all Nigerians, adding that the
outcome of the conference would partly determine the future of the younger
generation of the citizens through agriculture.
She commended the decision of
NACCIMA to collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and financial
institutions to fund agricultural businesses while employing unique skills and
capacities of the information technology industry to drive information and
accelerate the value chain.
Mrs Alaba Lawson, President,
NACCIMA said the conference was as a result of the collective efforts of the
organised private sector to promote an enabling environment for agriculture to
strive.
She said there was an urgent need
for the country to drive a structural economic transformation with emphasis on
improving both public and private sector efficiency.
“We organised this conference
which is aimed at maximising agricultural productivity by increasing public
awareness of the potential of agriculture.
“This is also by generating new
commercial agricultural technologies that meet local market needs while
advocating improved data collection and evidence-based reporting and monitoring
to evaluate the progress of the agriculture promotion policy.
“This conference provides an
opportunity to attain sustainable economic growth by bringing together relevant
stakeholders within the agricultural sector with the possibility of obtaining
success,’’ she said.
Lawson said that the
opportunities existing in the agricultural sector were vast, adding that
Nigeria, with a population of 180 million people, had a very huge market for
agricultural services.
“Within its agricultural
programme, the government is set to open a minimum of 100,000 hectares of
irrigable land by 2020 and this will develop the youth for commercial farming
and aquaculture,’’ she said.
Lawson called on the ministries,
departments and agencies of government that were involved in the implementation
of key activities in the economy to swiftly and efficiently implement the
programme.
She said that this would provide
an avenue through which the assessment of the programme by the private sector
and other stakeholders could be carried out in order to achieve the desired
goals.
The Managing Director of NIRSAL,
Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed, said that ERGP was aimed at increasing annual
agricultural growth from the 2011 to 2015 output of 4.1 percent to 8.3 percent
by December 2020.
He said that this would represent
an average growth rate of 6.9 percent across the three-year plan period.
“We are naturally endowed with
land, water, climate and the market, at very competitive levels, but we lack
the full capacity to actualise these opportunities.
“In order to leapfrog the development,
as desired by the agricultural sector, fully identified actors have to be
attracted into Nigeria,’’ he said.
He said that although Nigeria
lacked the funds for infrastructure logistics, storage and processing, NIRSAL
was established to share all the risks associated with funding across the value
chain.
“At the heart of the functions of
NIRSAL is its role in facilitating and increasing the flow of commercial
revenue and investment in agriculture as well as fixing the broken value chains
which are impediments to achieving increased financial investments.
“The objective is to raise
commercial bank lending and other investments from three percent, as it is
today, to about 10 percent by the year 2026,
“We want to see how we can
mobilise up to six billion dollars annually into the Nigerian business
sector,’’ he added.
He said that NIRSAL was in
partnership with NACCIMA to promote strategic approaches in solving endemic
challenges that appeared in the process of increasing agricultural financing.
Mr Pascal Dozie, the Chairman of
Kunoch Ltd. and one of the conference ambassadors, said that agriculture and
agribusiness spanned all sectors of the economy, adding that life was basically
incomplete without agriculture.
He said it was important to
glamorise agriculture and agribusiness because it would spur all spheres of
development.
The two-day conference, which
would end on Thursday, is aimed at creating a networking platform for private
sector practitioners within the agricultural space to interact and come up with
recommendations on how to implement the agriculture component of the ERGP
Grain council calls for policy review to
promote intra-regional rice trade
By: DIANE MUSHIMIYIMANA
·
PUBLISHED: November 30, 2017
There is need for policies that will support cross-border trade in
grains and cereals and also eradicate barriers affecting the sector, the
regional grain council has said.
Gerald Makau Masila, the Eastern African Grain Council (EAGC)
executive director, said a supportive legal regime will spur cross-border trade
of commodities like rice and help reduce food imports into the Eastern Africa
region.
“Governments in the region should recognise the need to protect
rice producers and strengthen efforts aimed at making the region self-reliant
in rice production and consumption. This will also promote intra- regional
trade in the commodity,” he said.
“Rice should be classified as a ‘sensitive’ product whose imports
from outside the region should attract an ad-valomen common external tariff
(CET) rate of 75 per cent,” Masila said.
Ad-valomen is a levy that should be in proportion to the value of
products or concerned transaction.
He was speaking during the regional grain trade
business-to-business (B2B) forum in Kigali on Tuesday. The meeting brought
together over 100 grain traders and farmers from Eastern Africa and Zambia to
discuss policies affecting the region’s grain sector.
The forum was organised by the EAGC in partnership with the East
Africa Exchange and the USAID private sector driven agricultural growth
project.
Meanwhile, Masila said that cross-border trade in grains and
cereals continues to face a number of tariff and non-tariff barriers, saying
they contravene the spirit of the regional integration. Other challenges
include informal trade, poor quality, high rate imports from mainly Asian
countries where over 500,000 tonnes are imported annually, and low output and
insufficient trade volumes resulting from small-scale and informal farming
practices.
Masila also said the commodity is mainly traded at national level,
noting that minimal volumes of rice are traded between EAC and other regional
countries.
Speaking at the event, Melanie Bittle, the chief of party of the USAID
private sector driven agricultural growth project, called for adoption of
improved and modern rice growing methods by smallholder farmers to boost
output.
She also said promotion of large-scale farming and increased
access to quality inputs by farmers are critical to ensure high production.
This will help reduce rice imports and spur exports within the region and meet
the growing rice demand, the official said. Africa is expected to account for
40 per cent of the additional 112 million tonnes of the global rice needs by
2040.
Rice processors speak out
Venuste Bakundukize, the executive director of Kinazi Rice Mill in
Southern Province, called on government to scrap value added tax (VAT) on
milled rice, saying other EAC countries have already removed the levy. He added
that the low production capacity in the province was affecting the miller.
“We have the capacity to process 5,000 tonnes annually, but due to
low supply we are producing 2,000 tonnes.
“Therefore, there is a need to support farmers and to promote
large scale rice growing to increase production to meet market needs,” he said.
He added that the firm is most time forced to source for rice from
outside the province due to low supply from area farmers.
http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/224563/Rice exporters to visit Sri Lanka
November
30, 2017
SHARE :
ISLAMABAD - A delegation of Rice Exporters Association
of Pakistan (REAP), will undertake a visit to Sri Lanka next month to explore
the possibility of expanding export of Pakistan’s rice to that country.
REAP said a three-member delegation of REAP,
led by its acting chairman Rafique Suleman, held a meeting with Consul General
of Sri Lanka in Karachi G L
Gnanatheva to discuss the forthcoming visit of the REAP delegation
to Sri Lanka .
The acting chairman REAP Rafique Suleman, while
discussing the details of the visit of the
association to Sri Lank, told the Sri Lankan Consul General that the visit has been arranged on the
invitation from Pakistani High Commission in Colombo, who had asked the REAP to
send a delegation to Sri Lanka to
further promote trade ties between the two countries.
He said presently Sri Lanka is facing shortage
of rice and interested to
import rice from Pakistan due to its high
standard and international quality.
“This year we are having a good quality crop of
Basmati and Irri-6 rice and we
can export good quantity of rice with
competitive prices to many countries including Sri Lanka , “ said Rafique
Suleman.
During the visit , this delegation will have
meetings with President of Sri Lanka ,
Prime Minister of Sri Lanka ,
Ministers for Trade, Commerce, Transport as well as officials of Ceylon Chamber
of Commerce & National Chamber of Commerce, Colombo and leading rice importers. “We will also discuss to increase
the Basmati rice quota
which is stagnant to 6,000 metric tons since many years,” he added.
http://nation.com.pk/30-Nov-2017/rice-exporters-to-visit-sri-lankaHarmonising the rice sector
Sok Chan / Khmer Times Share:
After almost two years in the
making, the Ministry of Agriculture has unveiled a new fragrant rice seedling
that it plans to distribute among farmers across the nation, according to the
Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI)
Purified seedlings of the Sen Kro
Ob variety, a type of fragrant rice, will be available to farmers by the end of
2018, said Ouk Makara, director of CARDI, the government agency that produced
the seeds.
He said that CARDI, the Cambodia
Agricultural Value Chain Programme (CAVAC) and the Cambodia Rice Federation
(CRF) were working with 30 agricultural communities across the country to test
the new seedling in a pilot programme designed to assess the quality and grain
yield of the new seeds and weigh them against other popular fragrant rice
seedlings used by Cambodian farmers.
The programme will start next
month, with a second round scheduled for April in which 20 additional
agricultural communities will participate.
“We have produced three samples
of purified fragrant rice seedlings which are expected to yield up to 8 tonnes
of rice per hectare,” Mr Makara explained.
He said there was a need to
produce a new Sen Kro Ob seedling because existing ones were not “pure” and
their original source cannot be traced back easily. Under current conditions,
he explained, it was difficult for the government to determine exactly what
seedlings each farmer needs.
“By end of 2018 we will collect
results from farmers. If feedback is positive, we will establish it as the new
official rice seedling and distribute it to all farmers across the country,” Mr
Makara said.
Seu Rany, CRF’s vice-president,
said the new purified rice seedling can help obtain higher quality produce as
well as higher yields, eventually helping the sector meet rising demand for
Cambodian rice.
“International demand for
fragrant rice is growing.
“The Sen Kro Ob rice variety has
high quality and good yields. It will boost living standards for farmers,” Mr
Rany explained.
Than Leng, deputy director of
Romdul Tean Kam, a community in Banteay Meanchey participating in the pilot
programme, said he was hopeful about the new rice because it would improve
farmers’ livelihoods.
He said the seedling can be
harvested twice per year, with a quality and grain yields comparable to those
of other popular varieties.
“We grow Sen Kro Ob rice
alongside our premium rice varieties – Romdul, Romeat and Romdeng.
“We grow it twice a year. The
rest of the year we harvest our premium varieties,” Mr Leng said, adding that
Sen Kro Ob could be harvested within 120 days.
Yon Sovann, director of Bayon
Cereal, one of the leading rice exporting companies in Cambodia, said there is
a huge international market for Sen Kro Ob rice, but added that current
production levels are insufficient to meet that demand.
“I am very happy that the
Ministry of Agriculture produced a purified Sen Kro Ob rice seedling. It is a
positive step to increase exports,” Mr Sovann said. “Buyers from Singapore,
Hong Kong and Macau and other countries are always asking for our fragrant
rice.”
Phka Rumduol, Phka Romeat and
Phka Rumdeng are popular fragrant rice varieties harvested during the wet
season, while Sen Kro Ob and Sen Pidao are grown during dry months.
From January to September 2017,
Cambodia exported nearly 422,000 tonnes of milled rice, an increase of more
than 16.5 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the
latest report from the secretariat of the One Window Service for Rice Export
Formality.
The report finds that nearly 70
countries have been importing Cambodian rice, with China being the largest
buyer, importing more than 120,000 tonnes of Cambodian rice, followed by
France, with over 50,000 tonnes, and Poland, who buys around 35,000 tonnes.
Smuggling: NCS intercepts 506 bags of foreign
rice ON NOVEMBER 29, 201712:38 PMIN NEWSCOMMENTS Nigeria Customs Service (NCS)
said its command in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara zone had intercepted 506 bags of
foreign rice concealed in bags of beans smuggled into the country. The
command’s Controller, Mr Nasir Ahmad, made this known to newsmen on Wednesday
in Sokoto, and said that the seized consignment had payable duty value of N12.5
million. Ahmad said that the items were intercepted on Friday officers of the
command on patrol along Sokoto-Illela road. He said that the command had
competent intelligent officers, investigating specialised activities. The
controller explained that smugglers deployed different tactics in perpetrating
their illegal businesses and reassured the public of the command’s readiness to
confront smuggling and enforce government regulations. He called on people
residing in border communities to assist Customs authorities with useful
information to combat smuggling of goods into the country. “The present case is
different as smugglers packaged two bags of rice in bigger beans bag disguising
that they were conveying beans in the truck,” Ahmad said. According to him,
smugglers are using various structures, including residential buildings, to
store smuggled items in peace-meal before uploading to a truck. Ahmad said
smuggling was crippling the nation’s economy as it deprived it of revenue,
crippled industrial growth, endangered population and employment. He commended
Comptroller-General and officers of the Service for supporting anti-smuggling
and revenue generation drive of the present administration.
Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/11/smuggling-ncs-intercepts-506-bags-foreign-rice/
Al-Makura donates rice processing plant to
millers
By Hassan Ibrahim, Lafia | Publish Date: Nov 30 2017
2:00AM
Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State has constructed
and handed over a modern rice processing plant to rice millers in Lafia to
boost rice production in the state.
Speaking during the handover Governor Al-Makura said the plant
was established in partnership with the Japanese International Cooperation
Agency (JICA) under the Rice Post-Harvest Processing and Marketing Pilot
Project (RIPMAPP).
The governor said the partnership under the five-year project
entailed JICA providing the machines and technical expertise, while the state
government provided the structures and other facilities at the plant.
Al-Makura said the commencement of the project was delayed
because of the efforts of the state government to ensure that the initiative
was not misused, thereby frustrating its goals.
Al-Makura revealed that the delay was to ensure proper
registration and monitoring of the beneficiaries of the project so as to check
abuse, “We do not want to go the way of previous administrations where very
expensive facilities and government assets were just thrown to the dogs and
people would feast on them.
“The recent experience of `Badakoshi’ Agricultural Loan Scheme
by the previous administration in the state, where farm inputs were given to
farmers without concrete repayment plans, is a good lesson.
“As we speak, Nasarawa State is indebted to the tune of about N1
billion for tractors and other inputs, which the previous administration
procured and gave out free to people in the name of ‘Badakoshi’ loan scheme,”
Al-Makura said.
He explained that the government would closely monitor the rice
plant to ensure its maximum utilisation by rice millers and marketers, who were
given a six-month grace period to meet certain conditions.
He noted that the government would not hesitate to take back the
plant at the expiration of the grace period if the rice millers and marketers
failed to satisfy the conditions.
“The state government is committed to ensuring that our rice
millers grow to the point of participating in the value chain and creating
wealth for themselves and by extension the state,” he said.
Al-Makura pledged to provide more land and other social amenities
for the plant to facilitate the relocation of rice millers from their current
site in Lafia to the new site.
“The current rice mill in the Kilema area of Lafia is so choked
up and the activities of millers are polluting the major water source to the Lafia
waterworks, hence the need to relocate the mill to a bigger place with better
facilities,’’ he said.
The governor also promised to provide the necessary
support to the millers, adding that his administration would regularly give
financial assistance to the rice millers to enable them to enhance their
production.
On his part, the Chairman of Nasarawa State Rice Millers
and Dealers Association, Alhaji Adamu Ibrahim, thanked the state government and
JICA for the project and promised that the plant would be used to boost rice
production in the state.
He appealed to the government to provide access roads,
electricity and water supply facilities at the plant site to facilitate hitch
free relocation of the millers.
https://dailytrust.com.ng/al-makura-donates-rice-processing-plant-to-millers.html
Slow lifting of paddy piles
up stock in grain markets
·
Labourers protest against slow lifting of paddy from grain markets by rice millers and district administration. tribune photo
Our Correspondent
Jagraon, November 29
The
slow pace of paddy lifting has led to piling up of huge stock of the crop in
grain markets of the Jagraon area.
Though
the procurement season ended a few days ago, the Jagraon Grain Market, which is
the second largest market in Asia after the Khanna Grain Market, is bulging at
its seams with the paddy stock.
Slow
lifting of the crop is being cited as the main reason behind the issue. Similar
is the situation at the other grain markets located in the rural areas of the
town where huge stocks of paddy are still to be lifted. Meanwhile, hundreds of
tonnes of procured paddy is lying in the open at various grain markets.
According
to sources, the stock could not be lifted from grain markets till the day
because private rice millers had been demanding more bags of paddy per truck on
the pretext of high moisture in the crop.
Meanwhile,
a large number of labourers led by Pendu Mazdoor Union, staged a protest at
Sidhwan Bet Grain Market against slow lifting of paddy from grain markets.
Labourers raised slogans against rice millers, procurement agencies and the
district administration during the protest.
While
addressing protesters, the district president of the union, Avtar Singh
Rasoolpur, alleged that, “Rice millers have been blackmailing the
administration by demanding more bags of paddy per truck on the pretext of high
moisture content in the crop.”
“If
rice millers have any problem regarding moisture in the paddy, they should take
up the matter with procurement agencies and the district administration instead
of halting the lifting and blackmailing them by demanding more bags of the crop
per truck citing high moisture content,” said Rasoolpur.
The
Jagraon Market Committee secretary, Jasmit Singh Brar, said, “Paddy lifting has
been going on smoothly and the whole stock will be cleared from grain markets
soon.”
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/ludhiana/slow-lifting-of-paddy-piles-up-stock-in-grain-markets/505709.html
Bangladesh ag minister hopes for
'new era of collaboration' for rice sector
November 29, 2017 - by Holly Demaree
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In partnership with IRRI, both will work to cope with
the effects of climate change and degradation of natural resources.
Photo courtesy of IRRI.
Photo courtesy of IRRI.
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