India, the world's second-biggest rice producer, increased the minimum export price for the grain to boost local supplies and curb inflation as global stockpiles of cereals fall to the lowest in more than two decades.
Exporters must ship rice for at least 40,000 rupees, or US$1,000 a ton (0.907 tonne), excluding freight, which compares with US$650 a ton previously, the trade ministry said in a statement. The price for aromatic Basmati rice was raised to US$1,100 a ton.
Record prices are threatening food security in rice-buying nations from the Philippines to Nigeria and are driving up costs for producers, including Anheuser-Busch Cos, the biggest US buyer of the grain, and cereal maker Kellogg Co. Vietnam, China and Egypt are restricting rice exports, and South Korea will release grain from state-controlled reserves to cool prices.
"Not just India, but governments across the globe are taking steps to keep prices of staple foods under control," said Atul Chaturvedi, president of Adani Enterprises Ltd, India's biggest private exporter of farm goods. "It's clearly the result of the fight for food and fuel."
The Food and Agriculture Organization said last month that 36 nations, including China face food emergencies this year. World rice stockpiles may total 72.1 million tonnes by the end of July, the lowest since 1984, the US Department of Agriculture said.
Rough rice prices have almost doubled on the Chicago Board of Trade in the past year. Rice for delivery in May rose as much as US$0.48, or 2.5 percent, to a record US$19.785 per 100 pounds (220kg) in Chicago yesterday. Wheat reached US$13.495 a bushel on Feb. 27, its highest-ever.
"Food prices all over the world are going through the roof and so spread the risk of social unrest," investor Jim Rogers said in Singapore yesterday. "It doesn't matter where, everybody has to pay higher prices for food and that's causing a problem."
Consumer prices in China, the world's fastest-growing major economy, soared to 8.7 percent last month, the fastest pace in 11 years. In Thailand, prices jumped the most in 20 months, and in Vietnam, inflation is its highest in more than a decade.
Rising prices and shortages of food staples have been felt outside Asia. In Argentina, farmers blocked highways and access to ports and warehouses to protest rising export taxes, leading to a shortage of meat. The nation is the world's second-largest corn exporter and the third-largest soybean supplier.
The Philippines, the world's biggest rice buyer, may reduce the import tax on the grain to as little as 10 percent from 50 percent, Finance Secretary Gary Teves said in an interview yesterday. Sri Lanka scrapped customs duty on rice imports, the state-owned Daily News reported yesterday.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the