IMF (International Monetary Fund) Managing Director Georgieva recently said at the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland: The problem of global food security is becoming increasingly prominent, and many countries have announced "measures to restrict some grain exports", which has aggravated the global food supply crisis.
Among them, the Indian authorities have declared wheat exports in the "prohibited" category. Some people believe that India is only an ordinary participant in the global wheat economic and trade field, and even if wheat exports are restricted, it will not have a substantial impact on the food supply security of neighboring countries.
The focus is on rice – Indian officials have made it clear that they currently have enough rice stocks and have no plans to limit rice exports. This has given a sigh of relief to dealers engaged in the rice trade in various countries, and the rice supply chain in the international market is still expected to remain balanced.
India is the global leader in rice exports
The data shows that in the 2021-22 fiscal year, India's exports of rice climbed to 21.5 million tons (pictured above), reaching about 40% of the world's total rice exports, not only ranking first in the world again, but also setting a record high.
When the summer season comes, the Indian monsoon arrives as promised, and tens of millions of farmers are planting rice. Rice production is expected to exceed 130 million tonnes in FY2022-23, which will help India provide more rice to the international community and alleviate the global food supply crisis.
More importantly, Indian rice is relatively cheaper than thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and other countries, helping to ease the current high-priced global food trade – in May, for example, the crushing rate of rice was 5%, and Indian exporters gave a value of about $330/ton.
In contrast, Pakistan's "crushing rate of 5% rice" offer reached $385 per ton, Vietnamese exporters offered $421/ton, and Thai rice exporters offered $449 per ton – India is the cheapest of the world's major rice exporters.
In addition, India is also the world's "main force in the broken rice export market", exporting 3.864 million tons of broken rice in the 2021-22 fiscal year, more than half of the global supply of broken rice. Vietnam has taken advantage of this price difference for profit — exporting its own fragrant rice and importing crushed rice from India.
The biggest demand for crushed rice in India is China, which bought 1.576 million tonnes from India in the 2021-22 fiscal year, mainly for the manufacture of noodles, winemaking and feed. Vijay Setia, former president of the Indian Rice Exporters Association, said importers from the mainland had "visited several Indian rice mills to ensure a stable supply of crushed rice this year".
What are some of the other important rice exporters?
Following India in rice exports, Thailand (2nd), Vietnam (3rd), Pakistan (4th), the United States (5th), Myanmar (6th), China (7th) and Cambodia (8th) were ranked behind India. Yes, the mainland is the world's largest importer of rice today – it bought 4.1 million tonnes of rice in the 2021-22 fiscal year.
But at the same time, the mainland is also the world's seventh-largest exporter of rice – selling 2.55 million tonnes in the 2021-22 fiscal year. Nansheng noted that the total amount of rice consumed by the mainland each year is between 150 million and 160 million tons, and the proportion of net rice imports is relatively low, mainly because of the adjustment effect to meet the increasingly rich appetite of mainland residents.
Comments: Judging from the current situation, the global rice supply market is still relatively stable, but the monitoring cannot be relaxed. On the one hand, this is because the international situation has suddenly changed, and accidents may occur at any time; On the other hand, when wheat supply tightens, some countries increase rice purchases, which exacerbates current supply chain pressures. This article is organized and written by [Nansheng], please do not reprint or plagiarize without authorization!