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The prices of beans, yams, rice, onions and tomatoes, have soared
in Yenagoa, Bayelsa, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.Some traders, who
spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa on Friday, attributed
the increase in the prices of commodities to yuletide and the current fuel
scarcity.
Mrs
Bridget Onyekachi, a foodstuff dealer, told NAN that the fuel scarcity was the
major cause of the price increase.
“You
know when there is a hike in petrol price, it affects all commercial activities
and causes increases in the prices of food items.
“I did
not see Christmas as responsible. I believe it is the scarcity of fuel,”
Onyekachi said.
She said
a 100kg bag of iron brown beans now cost N40,000 against N35,000 or N37,000 it
sold in November.
“A very
big yam tuber now costs between N3, 000 and N2,500 as against N2,000; the
medium size attracts N1,500 while the small one goes for between N1,000 and
N200.
“The
price of rice, a popular staple food, has gone up with a 50kg bag of foreign
rice such as Mama Gold, Stallions and Mama Africa now selling for N20,000 as
against N17,000.
“For the
branded local rice, a bag now sells for between N15,000 and N17, 000,’’
Onyekachi said.
Mr
Ibrahim Amadu, a retailer of foodstuffs, explained that the price increase was
due to the hike in the price of fuel.
“Actually,
Christmas is a period for every business to boom, but it has been difficult this
time around, following the scarcity of fuel,’’ Amadu said.
Another
wholesaler of foodstuffs, Mr George Maduka, blamed the high cost of food items
on fuel scarcity.
“The
scarcity of fuel is affecting us and our businesses too; we urge the Federal
Government to find a lasting solution to it,” Maduka said.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele thursday reiterated the central bank’s readiness
to make cheap funding available to farmers in the country at five percent for
the procurement of agricultural processing equipment.Emefiele, who said this at
the launch of MITROS Ofada rice in Abeokuta, Ogun State, also said the CBN
would soon shift from financing primary agriculture to processing, declaring
that the apex bank was ready to support ideas and concepts capable of growing
the agricultural sector of Nigeria.
The rice packages were in 50kg, 25kg, 10kg, 5kg and 1kg.
The event was attended by the Chairman, the Presidential Task
Force on Agricultural Commodities and Production and Governor of Kebbi State,
Abubakar Bagudu, top government functionaries, farmers associations,
traditional rulers and representatives of financial institutions.
The CBN governor noted that agriculture remained the best way to
grow Nigeria’s economy, provide food and jobs. He also lauded Ogun State for
actualising President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s vision to make Nigeria
food sufficient.
He further said production of rice by Ogun State would help the
country in reducing its foreign exchange spending on rice import, urging the
state government to venture into other food commodities with a view to help
Nigeria eat what it grows.
“I am extremely delighted to witness this giant stride of Governor
Amosun. Twelve months ago, myself, Kebbi State governor and the Minister of
Agriculture, as part of the federal government’s efforts to revive agricultural
commodities, visited Ogun.
“We saw farmland, rice plantations, fish ponds, and the governor
promised us that we would soon be invited to see the strides of the state in
agriculture.
“I think Ogun state government and the people deserve
commendation, as the state continues to demonstrate support for FG’s efforts to
create jobs, and grow the economy. Any nation who is not serious with
agriculture is doomed. CBN will continue to support anybody that wants to grow
agric sector.
“This step by Ogun State will help in stemming the demands for
forex to import rice and we will eat what we grow.
“We presently focus on primary agriculture, we will soon shift
focus on the processing. We are ready to provide cheap funding at not more than
five per cent interest rate, to support those who want to procure farm
processing equipment such as threshers, planters, harvesters and so on. I hope
many more states would soon invite us, to see their agricultural pyramid and
other efforts to revolutionise agriculture in Nigeria”. Emefiele declared.
On his part, Governor Abubakar Bagudu, disclosed that out of 600
million metric tonnes of rice being produced globally, only 10 million metric
tonnes were being produced in Nigeria by 12 million rice farmers.
Bagudu, who stated that Nigeria has the capacity to produce rice
competitively, noted that efforts were being put in place by the federal
government to increase local production of rice to an average of 50 million
metric tonnes.
He, however, lauded the Ogun State government for achieving the
rice production, which according to him would make better quality, hygienic and
fresher rice available to Nigerian, unlike the imported that has minimum of
seven years of shelf life.
The Presidential Task Force chairman declared that all the 36
states, including the FCT, have capacity to produce rice and tasked the Ogun
state government on the need to venture into other areas of agriculture,
particularly fish farming.
Speaking at the occasion, Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle
Amosun, said the launch of the rice was as a result of six years of hard work
of his administration, to further reduce Nigeria’s rice import.
Amosun bemoaned the overdependence on food import, which according
to him has put pressure on forex and reduce value of naira, assured that his
administration, in conjunction with other states, FG and private sector, would
work vigorously, to defeat food insecurity.
He, however, said that the rice was entirely planted, processed
and packaged in rice plantations in the state, submitting the state would
intensify efforts on rice production, to crash the high cost of rice in the
market.
Civil Supplies Dept saves Rs 107 cr by talks with rice millers
December 22, 2017, 8:04 PM IST
Civil Supplies Commissioner C.V.
Anand today said the State government has saved some Rs 107 crore by holding
regular meetings with the rice millers for supplying rice to the government
welfare hostels, Mid-Day Meal and PDS Rice schemes. Under the leadership of the
Chief Minister, bargaining with the representatives of Telangana Rice Millers
Association, the government was able to save Rs 25 crore on fine rice and Rs 82
crore on raw rice, he said.
CV Anand said as there was a shortage of CMR rice this year for
PDS, the department has decided to purchase from the millers an extra quantity
of six lakh metric tons of raw and 1.50 lakh metric tons of fine rice for
supplying to welfare hostels. Only three applicants responded to online tender
call and the maximum rate for Grade-A quality quoted was Rs 2,650 per quintal
and L1 tender was filed to supply 1.06 lakh metric tons only. The tender was
filed to supply 1.50 lakh metric tons of fine rice at Rs 3,492 per quintal, he
added.
Civil Supplies Minister Etala Rajender met with the representatives of
Telangana Millers Association, agreed to supply PDS rice at the rate of Rs
2,400 per quintal and Raw rice at Rs.3250, steamed rice at Rs. 3,300 per
quintal if it was supplied in the bags provided by the department, the
Commissioner said. He said for this initially it was Rs 1,578 crore as per the
tender quotation for procurement of six lakh million tons. Now it was brought
down to Rs 1,495.80 crore, he added.
Anand said last year the
requirement of rice was 10,000 to 12,000 million tons rice per month and 1.20
lakh million tons for the entire year. Because of the increase in the number of
students this year, the department would require 1.50 lakh million tons, he
said, adding that his department was focusing more on the quality of rice
supplied to the government hostels and other welfare schemes like Mid-Day Meal.
With a view to supply quality food to the poor students in the government
schools, the department has been supplying fine rice, he said, adding
unfortunately a portion of the rice was getting diverted by some fraudulent
traders and vested interests. The quality of rice supplied to the government
also was found not up to the mark at some places. The officials of the Task
Force and Enforcement wings of the department brought some specific cases to
the notice of the department recently, he said.
The Commissioner said after
studying these problems in depth, the department has decided to make changes in
the system of transportation, quality, quantity (weight) and kept a constant
vigil. He pointed out that earlier the rice was directly supplied to ration
shops from go-downs and then to the schools. ‘Here after, we would supply rice
to schools directly from the go-downs’, Anand said, adding that changes were
made in the transport policy to suit all the 31districts in the State and
completed the tender process.
The Commissioner further
clarified that the rice supplied to schools would be packed in a specially
designed gunny bags for an easy identification. This helps to put a check on
the organizers of hostels from misuse. These bags weighing 50kg would have big
letters like ‘FINE RICE’ on one side and the details like the name of the
miller, his area, date of packing, quality details, name of the department on
the other side, he said. “We have also made printing of details on gunny bags
mandatory’, he explained. (NSS)
In the latest report of the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service
(FAS), the Philippines was seen to import 1.3 million metric tons (MT) of rice
next year, lower than the original import target of 1.7 million MT. File
MANILA, Philippines — The
Philippines is expected to import more rice next year as local production will
still not be enough to cover the national demand, the United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) said.
In the latest report of the USDA
Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), the Philippines was seen to import 1.3
million metric tons (MT) of rice next year, lower than the original import
target of 1.7 million MT.
This year’s rice import level,
however, is 38 percent higher than the 800,000 MT of rice that entered the
country in 2016.
“Increased output is expected as a
result of favorable weather conditions and increased use of high-yielding
varieties. There were noticeably fewer intense typhoons that passed through
major rice production areas compared to previous years,” USDA said.
“A substantial shift away from rice
to corn is not expected due to delays in the tariffication of rice,” it added.
The lower importation is expected
as production of milled-rice next year is seen increasing two percent to 11.97
million MT from 11.68 million MT.
The USDA expects rice fields to
cover 4.8 million hectares, up two percent year on year.
This will be complemented by yield
slightly improving to 3.95 MT per hectare.
Local corn production is seen to
slightly improve by 1.2 percent to 8.2 million MT.
According to the Philippine
Statistics Authority (PSA), the country’s import dependency ratio (IDR)
abruptly decreased to 4.99 percent last year from 11.07 percent in 2015.
Rice imports fell 54.71 percent to
$278.87 million in 2016. In terms of volume, shipments plunged by 58.87 percent
to 609,360 MT.
Given lower imports, the country’s
self-sufficiency ratio of rice increased to 95.01 percent from 88.93 percent in
2015.
Contrary
to forecasts earlier this year that rice exports would face a host of
difficulties, figures from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MoIT) show
that exports have actually exceeded targets.
Rice
exports in the first eleven months of 2017 reached 5.52 million tons worth
$2.49 billion, up 24.1 per cent and 24.9 per cent, respectively, year-on-year.
Exports are expected to total 400,000-450,000 tons in December, bringing the
total volume for 2017 to 5.9-6 million tons, an increase of 1.1-1.2 million
tons compared to 2016.
2017 is therefore considered a successful year for the rice sector, given the
export target was set at 5 million tons at the beginning of the year. The
market was expected to face difficulties stemming from many importing countries
turning to self-sufficiency. Many of Vietnam’s major markets in Southeast Asia
are gradually changing their rice import mechanisms, from government imports to
private enterprise imports and bidding.
Experts, however, said the impressive growth in rice exports this year is
primarily due to the impact of climate change, which has caused rice supplies
in some countries to fall, with import demand rising as a result. Rising rice
exports to new markets such as Bangladesh and Iraq also contributed to this
year’s growth.
Mr. Nguyen Van Don, Director of the Viet Hung LLC, told local media that rice
export growth this year was mainly due to increases in exports to China,
especially for aromatic rice and sticky rice. The company’s export turnover in
2017 is expected to increase by 20 per cent over last year on the back of
greater exports to Vietnam’s northern neighbor.
Volumes exported to other markets also increased sharply. For example, in the
first ten months of the year, rice exports to the Philippines rose 41.3 per
cent year-on-year, to Malaysia 97.3 per cent, and to the Ivory Coast 39.7 per
cent. Some markets saw unexpected growth, such as South Korea, up 470 per cent,
and Saudi Arabia 210 per cent.
Other businesses have also sought to export to markets of potential such as the
EU and Japan. According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long, CEO of the Gao Viet Limited
Company, in recent years it has focused on exporting white rice to Eastern
Europe. 2017 revenue from the market is estimated to have increased by 20 per
cent against 2016.
Businesses forecast that rice exports will continue to grow significantly
thanks to increasing demand in China, the Philippines, South Korea, and Iraq.
In Photo: President Duterte leads the ceremonial signing of the
2018 General Appropriations Act and Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion
bill as members of Congress stand behind him at Malacañang in Manila on December
19, 2017.
Although worries over inflation pressures surfaced after the
signing of the first tranche of the tax-reform package, international think
tank Capital Economics said the impact of the so-called TRAIN, or the Tax
Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion, is not likely to derail inflation from
its projected path next year.
In Capital Economics’s most recent review of Philippine economic
dynamics, the research firm said the signed tax-reform package—which will lower
income taxes but increase a host of indirect taxes—will have minimal effect on
the overall inflation direction, as the introduction of new taxes will be
gradual.
‘Revenue building’
ON Tuesday President Duterte signed into law the first tranche
of the country’s tax-program overhaul, with its most salient feature being the
exemption from income tax of all annual salaries worth P250,000 and below.
Despite the lower personal taxes, the government still sees the
tax package as “revenue building” for project funding, as it also raised levies
on some sectors—including automobiles, sugary drinks, cosmetic procedures, coal
and petroleum products.
Capital Economics said Duterte’s move to encourage the speedy
approval of the bill, as well as his signing of the bill into law, marked “his
most important legislative achievement since coming to office 17 months ago.”
“The changes include reductions in income tax alongside
hikes in indirect taxes on items such as fuel, automobiles and cigarettes.
The increases in indirect taxes are likely to push up inflation. That said,
the overall impact is likely to be relatively small, given that the
changes are set to be phased in over several years,” Capital Economics
said.
Transitory
The Department of Finance (DOF) has estimated that the tax hikes
will only add 0.4 percentage points to the headline rate next year.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), meanwhile, retained its
3.4-percent inflation forecast for 2018, saying that the projection already
includes the potential effect of the higher tax rates brought about by TRAIN.
The BSP also regards the tax-related pressure as “transitory,”
thus, bringing their inflation projection for 2019 back to 3.2 percent.
Both forecasts are within the government’s target range of 2
percent to 4 percent from 2017 to 2019.
“While there may be potential transitory effects on consumer
prices from the tax-reform program, various mitigation measures and the
resulting improvement in output and productivity are also expected to temper
the impact on inflation over the medium term,” the BSP said in its most recent
monetary-policy meeting.
“Meanwhile, the proposed reforms in the rice industry involving
the replacement of quantitative restrictions with tariffs and the deregulation
of rice imports could serve to reduce inflation,” it added.
The DOF also said earlier this week that reforms in the process
of rice importation could bring down rice prices by as much as P7 per kilo.
Rice is one of the major drivers of inflation in the country,
being the staple food of every Filipino household, as it weighs heavily on the
local consumer price index basket.
International praise
The current administration’s ability to deliver the tax-reform
program into actuality has received acclaim from several researchers and
analysts outside of the country, the latest of which is international credit
watcher Fitch Ratings. The passage of the TRAIN, Fitch said, has been one of
the considerations behind its latest upgrade on the Philippine sovereign rating
to “BBB.”
“Fitch expects the Philippines’s fiscal profile to improve as a
result of the government’s tax-reform initiative…. We estimate the bill to be
net revenue positive, reflecting an expansion of the VAT [value-added tax] base
and higher taxes on petroleum products, automobiles and on sugar-sweetened beverages,
which would more than offset a lowering of personal income taxes,” Fitch
Ratings said.
“Passage of the first part of the tax package would bode well
for progress on the rest of the package over the next couple of years. The
government previously estimated that a full set of tax-reform packages would
boost revenue by 2 percent of GDP by 2019, with administrative measures to add
another 1 percent of GDP over this period,” it added.
‘Hot’ money inflow
Foreign investors have also expressed optimism in the passage of
the tax-reform program in the country, which translated to higher “hot” money
inflows in recent months.
In November this year, for example, foreign portfolio
investments (FPI) to the country yielded a net inflow of $108 million, a
reversal from the net outflows recorded in October 2017 of $563 million.
The BSP said the development may be attributed to positive
investor reaction, particularly to three recent developments, including the
then Senate’s approval of a higher personal income-tax exemption of P250,000
annually, as part of the Senate version of the government’s tax-reform program.
FPI are more popularly known as hot or “speculative” money
because they are easily pulled in and out of the local platforms, depending on
the winds of global and local sentiment.
HYDERABAD: Civil supplies commissioner C V Anand said on
Friday that the state government was able to save 107 crores by convincing the
millers to reduce the price of rice supplied to government welfare hostels,
mid-day meal scheme and public distribution purpose .
Stating that finance and civil supplies minister Etala Rajender played a
crucial role in bargaining with the rice millers association, Anand said of the
total amount saved, 25 crore were from fine rice and 82 crore from raw rice."As
there is a shortage of custom milled rice (CMR) this year for PDS, the department
decided to purchase from the millers an additional quantity of 6 lakh metric
tonnes of raw rice and 1.5 lakh metric tonnes of fine rice for supply to
welfare hostels," he said.
Minister Rajender met representatives of Telangana Millers Association and they agreed to supply PDS rice at reduced rate of
2400 per quintal and raw rice at 3250 and steamed rice at 3300 per quintal,
subject to condition that bags are provided by the department, Anand said.
With
complaints that good quality rice is being diverted by some fraudulent traders
and vested interests,commissioner Anand has decided to make changes in the
system of transportation, quality, and quantity. For example, the rice supplied
to schools would be packed in specially designed gunny bags for easy
identification and checking misuse or diversion.
How small does your rice pudding need to get when stirring jam into it?
New study shows that two seemingly diverging theories of
ever-increasing disorder, known as entropy, can be tested against each other
experimentally in the smallest possible systems
Have you ever tried turning the spoon back after stirring jam
into a rice pudding? It never brings the jam back into the spoon. This
ever-increasing disorder is linked to a notion called entropy. Entropy is of
interest to physicists studying the evolution of systems made up of multiple
identical elements, like gas. Yet, how the states in such systems should be
counted is a bone of contention. The traditional view developed by one of the
fathers of statistical mechanics, Ludwig Boltzmann - who worked on a very large
number of elements - is opposed to the seemingly disjointed theoretical
perspective of another founding scientists of the discipline, Willard Gibbs,
who describes systems with a very small number of elements. In a new study
published in EPJ Plus, Loris Ferrari from the University of Bologna, Italy,
demystifies this clash between theories by analysing the practical consequences
of Gibbs' definition in two systems of a well-defined size. Ferrari speculates
about the possibility that, for certain quantities, the differences resulting
from Boltzmann's and Gibbs' approach can be measured experimentally.
This debate centres around the notion of negative absolute
temperature (NAT), seen as a misleading consequence of Boltzmann's definition
of entropy. In contrast, Gibbs' theory prohibits NAT and makes the energy
equipartition rigorous in systems of arbitrary size. The two approaches,
however, converge when the systems have a very large number of elements. So the
issue here is to define the minimum size system for which both theories agree.
To test the two approaches against each other, the author
examines two models; namely a gas of N atoms which do not interact chemically
and another system with N interacting spins. His numerical simulations show
that it is possible to assess which of the two models is the most accurate
using experimental proof.
New body launched to adjust rice supply-demand
conditions
10:00 pm, December 22, 2017
Jiji PressTOKYO (Jiji Press) — A new organization led by agricultural
cooperatives was launched on Thursday for adjusting supply-demand conditions
for rice, ahead of the abolition in fiscal 2018 of the government’s “gentan”
system for curbing production of the staple food for Japanese people.
The group will gather information
on rice production status and demand across the nation.
As part of its activities, the
organization is expected to call on farmers to increase production of rice for
commercial use, which is currently in short supply, while encouraging food
service companies to sign multiyear contracts for rice procurements.
But it is unclear whether the new
group can produce intended results, because it has no authority to decide
prefecture-by-prefecture production quotas, informed sources said.
The group is made up of the
Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, or JA-Zenchu, which serves as its
secretariat, and 15 other bodies, including those for “bento” boxed meal
producers and retailers.
“We must ensure that the overhaul
of the rice production adjustment system does not undermine the stability of
the supply-demand balance and rice prices,” JA-Zenchu head Toru Nakaya said at
the new organization’s inaugural meeting held the same day.
Under the gentan system, the
government has so far set up rice production adjustment plans and decided
quotas for each prefecture.
Concerns about oversupply
While domestic demand for rice
has been falling, the government has successfully prevented the total rice
planting areas in the nation from exceeding targeted levels for the third
straight year, and rice prices went up as a result.
But there are concerns about
oversupply in and after fiscal 2018 partly because subsidies for farmers
cooperating to cut production are set to be scrapped in line with the abolition
of the gentan system.
The new organization has asked
wholesale and restaurant industry groups, which do not want to see a rise in
rice prices, to join the group as full members. But the groups participated in
the inaugural meeting as observers.
Amid conflicting interests among
inaugural member groups, the new organization kicked off without deciding
details of its activities and even its leader.
With some prefectures apparently
making preparations to increase rice production in 2018, a senior official of
the agriculture ministry said that “trials and errors are expected to continue
for the years to come” in pursuit of an effective way to adjust the
supply-and-demand balance
In the latest report of the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service
(FAS), the Philippines was seen to import 1.3 million metric tons (MT) of rice
next year, lower than the original import target of 1.7 million MT. File
MANILA, Philippines — The
Philippines is expected to import more rice next year as local production will
still not be enough to cover the national demand, the United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) said.
In the latest report of the USDA
Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), the Philippines was seen to import 1.3
million metric tons (MT) of rice next year, lower than the original import
target of 1.7 million MT.
This year’s rice import level,
however, is 38 percent higher than the 800,000 MT of rice that entered the
country in 2016.
“Increased output is expected as a
result of favorable weather conditions and increased use of high-yielding
varieties. There were noticeably fewer intense typhoons that passed through
major rice production areas compared to previous years,” USDA said.
“A substantial shift away from rice
to corn is not expected due to delays in the tariffication of rice,” it added.
The lower importation is expected
as production of milled-rice next year is seen increasing two percent to 11.97
million MT from 11.68 million MT.
The USDA expects rice fields to
cover 4.8 million hectares, up two percent year on year.
This will be complemented by yield
slightly improving to 3.95 MT per hectare.
Local corn production is seen to
slightly improve by 1.2 percent to 8.2 million MT.
According to the Philippine
Statistics Authority (PSA), the country’s import dependency ratio (IDR)
abruptly decreased to 4.99 percent last year from 11.07 percent in 2015.
Rice imports fell 54.71 percent to
$278.87 million in 2016. In terms of volume, shipments plunged by 58.87 percent
to 609,360 MT.
Given lower imports, the country’s
self-sufficiency ratio of rice increased to 95.01 percent from 88.93 percent in
2015.
Although Việt Nam annually exports five to seven million tonnes
of rice per year, the amount of revenue the country earns is less than other
countries already famous for their rice products such as Thailand and India.
— VNA/VNS Photo Đình Huệ
HÀ NỘI — Rice products will be certified under
the “Vietnam Rice” national brand if they are produced in accordance with
VietGAP or GlobalGAP standards -- good agricultural practices to produce clean
and safe farm products.
This is one of the regulations drafted by the
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to build, promote, manage
and certify the national brand for Vietnamese rice exports.
The draft document, including seven chapters
and 23 articles, has been circulated for experts’ opinions.
According to MARD, although
Việt Nam annually exports five to seven million tonnes of rice per
year, the amount of revenue the country earns is less than other countries
already famous for their rice products such as Thailand and India.
Besides this, Vietnamese rice is also facing
great competition from the rice brands of these countries. Thus, speeding up
the promotion of the national rice brand is one of the urgent solutions to help
increase the product’s added value, and subsequently export revenue.
Võ Thành Đô, deputy director of MARD’s
Agri-product Processing and Market Development Department, said building a
national brand for Vietnamese rice (Vietnam Rice) will promote the image of
products and create trust among consumers.
As a result, the competitiveness of
Việt Nam’s rice products in the world market will be enhanced, Đô said.
Đô said the regulation aims to ensure rice
products have stable characteristics and meet requirements in terms of quality
and origin traceability.
However, it also raised concerns among
agricultural experts and business insiders.
According to Nguyễn Anh Tuấn from the Northern
Food Corporation, the application of VietGap standards in rice cultivation is
important and should be encouraged.
However, the reality is that the area where
rice is cultivated according to VietG standards is not large, Tuấn said.
Sharing the view, Nguyễn Đức Cường, a
representative from the Tường Lân Agricultural Products Processing Company,
said many regions in Việt Nam have few rice production areas meeting
the VietGap standard due to the scattered production situation.
Therefore, rice enterprises would find it hard
to meet requirements, Cường added.
Đô acknowledged that a company producing
400,000 tonnes of rice would need some 80,000ha of raw material, adding that if
the annual export volume is taken into account, the areas meeting VietGAP
standard are not enough.
Trần Xuân Định, deputy head of MARD’s
Cultivation Department, said the Vietnamese rice national brand should not be
granted to rice products satisfying VietGAP. It should instead be granted to
those meeting Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in general.
Định explained that in many rice growing
regions, land and water indicators are within acceptable limits for the
application of GAP techniques.
In addition, standards for safe agricultural
products TCVN: 11892/12017 may be applied to replace and evaluate the quality
of Vietnamese rice, he said.
Rice
types
According to the draft regulations, the types
of rice bearing the national brand certification must be white rice, white
fragrant rice and white glutinous rice grown in areas planned by the State and
meet the quality requirements as regulated.
However, Phan Văn Hoà, director of the Vĩnh Hòa
Science and Technology Co Ltd, said the current rice varieties of
Việt Nam, even glutinous rice and aromatic rice, are in different colours,
so the above regulation will reduce the amount of qualified products.
With regard to this issue, Đô said the country
currently does not have many varieties of coloured rice, and this regulation
only aims at rice products for export under the Government scheme, therefore it
should focus on three groups of rice.
Đô said the Agri-product Processing and Market
Development Department is assigned by MARD to register the ownership of the
“Gạo Việt Nam/Vietnam Rice” national brand at the Intellectual Property
Department.
The draft regulations on building,
promoting, managing and certifying the national brand for Vietnamese rice
exports are expected to be finalised this month.
Rice is among the products that have witnessed
high growth rate in recent years. The volume of rice exported in November is
estimated at 389,000 tonnes, worth US$192 million.
The figures for 11 months of the year was 5.49
million tonnes and $2.48 billion, respectively, representing an increase of
23.4 per cent in terms of volume and 24.2 per cent in value over the same
period in 2016.
China continues to rank first in the rice
import market of Việt Nam in the first 10 months of 2017 with 39.8
per cent of the market share. — VNS
Bangladesh
buys 200,000 tonnes of rice under G to G agreement
22.12.2017 | UkrAgroConsult
Bangladesh has offered to buy an additional 200,000 tonnes of rice
from Myanmar under a government to government agreement before the end of
December, said associate secretary Lu Maw Myint Maung of the Myanmar Rice Federation
(MRF).
Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding to buy
300,000 tonnes of rice under the agreement, a major increase from the 100,000
tonnes of Myanmar rice already sent to the neighbour this year in response to a
shortfall.
Rice demand in Bangladesh increased with a sense of urgency this
year after floods damaged most paddy fields in the country.
Bangladesh has imported 1.2 million tonnes of rice but still
requires around another one million tonnes, said Lu Maw Mying Maung. So far,
Myanmar has exported about one million tonnes of rice to Bangladesh, he said.
Myanmar exported over two million tonnes of rice over the first
nine months of this fiscal year, breaking a record that stood for some 50
years, said Dr Aung Thu, minister for agriculture, livestock and irrigation on
December 15.
Lu Maw Myint Maung said the federation expected about 500,000
tonnes of rice will be exported in the remaining three months of the fiscal
year, and that it would break the record.
New Delhi, Dec 22 Rice basmati
prices fell further by Rs 100 per quintal at the wholesale grains market today
on tepid demand against adequate stocks position.
Traders said easing demand from
retailers and stockists against sufficient stocks position kept rice basmati
prices lower.
In the national capital, rice
basmati common and Pusa 1121 variety shed another Rs 100 each to Rs 7,500-7,600
and Rs 6,100-6,200 per quintal, respectively.
Following are today's quotations
(in Rs per quintal):
Tax Reform Bill
Positive for Ag, Continuing Resolution Passes, Disaster Relief Stalls
By Ben Mosely
Today, President Trump signed the most significant overhaul of
America's tax system in decades, and while Republicans and Democrats disagree
on how the bill will ultimately shake out for Americans, here is a recap of
some of the changes.
The corporate tax rate was reduced to 21 percent from a maximum 35
percentbeginning in 2018. Pass-Through
businesses income will continue to be realized and taxed on personal schedules,
but owners will be given a 20 percent deduction on first $315,000 (married
filing jointly) of income through the entity.
The Alternative Minimum Tax for corporations is abolished, and
Agricultural Cooperatives won a 20percent deduction on pass-through income that
will be calculated on the gross income of the cooperative beginning in 2018.
This is meant to reflect the current Section 199 (domestic manufacturing)
deduction which is repealed beginning in 2018.
Cash accounting is maintained for farming businesses and interest
deductibility is fully maintained for businesses with less than $25 million in
revenue. Farming businesses with income greater than $25 million can retain
interest deductibility if they use the Alternate Depreciation System for
investments.
Section 179 deduction expensing limits are increased to $1 million
per year with phase-out beginning at $2.5 million. Cost Recovery (Bonus Depreciation) is allowed
for used property, and is permitted at the 100% rate through 2022, and phased
down by 20% each year thereafter.
Net Operating Loss carry back provisions are maintained, and
carry-forward is unlimited except that no more than 80% of income can be offset
in any year.
There are other areas of the tax bill that did not change
significantly, like the time-periods and phase outs for energy credits like
wind and solar and other renewables that impact many farmers and land-owners.
Other provisions impacting export sales, like the Interest-Charge Domestic
International Sales Corp (IC-DISC) were retained.
The detailed section-by-section scoring can be found on the House
Ways and Means Committee website. Taxpayers are encouraged to consult tax
professionals for more exact information as it applies to their specific
operation.
A Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded until January
19 was also passed and it includes a waiver for the statutory PAYGO rules that
was necessary to avoid automatic sequestration of mandatory programs that were
set to trigger in January as a result of the deficits added by the tax reform
package.
Unfortunately negotiations in the Senate stalled on the House
passed supplemental disaster package that contained cotton and dairy farm bill
fixes and funded a backlog of NRCS programs for natural disaster recovery
efforts.
USA Rice will continue to conduct analysis of the reforms and
impacts on the rice industry and asks members with specific questions or
concerns to raise them with Government Affairs staff.
