Global price of rice rising..

This will make life more difficult for the poorest in Asia who will be unable to buy enough rice to stave off starvation without a subsidy from their governments. The Philippines regularly imports rice as its own production is not sufficient to feed the entire population. Often the country sells to the poor at subsidized prices. This is from vietnamnews.

Storms drive up global rice price

by Le Hung Vong


A bid to sell 150,000 tonnes of rice to the Philippines won by the Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2) may help raise world rice prices, local media reports.

On November 4, Vinafood 2 won the rice exporting contract at US$480 per tonne, much higher than previous deals.

Prices are expected to continue to go up this year, as they did in 2008.

The Philippines’ scheduled bid to buy 600,000 tonnes of rice on December 1 could raise prices to $560 per tonne, the Viet Nam Food Association (VFA) has said.

Local senior economist Nguyen Dinh Bich was quoted by Sai Gon Marketing as saying that world rice prices have kept increasing.

Prices of Thai 15 per cent broken rice went up from $451 per tonne in October to $490 on November 13 and then to $495 on November 19, a total increase of $44 per tonne (9.8 per cent). Meanwhile, price of Viet Nam’s five per cent broken rice has also increased from $410 per tonne to $460 per tonne and then $480, representing a record price increase of $70 per tonne (17.1 per cent).

The upward tendency followed the Philippines announced plans to import some 1.2 million tonnes of rice while other rice producers face the risk of crop failure.

The Minister of Agriculture of the Philippines was quoted by Sai Gon Marketing as saying that the world rice price may return to the record price of 2008 due to the bad weather which has made output decrease sharply and has forced a number of countries to import the grain.