The pandemic-induced disruptions have led the rice export prices in India to rise to its highest in 18 months, while Bangladesh may have to import the staple after natural calamities damaged crops. Meanwhile, the price for Vietnam’s 5% broken rice remained unchanged and Thailand witnessed an increase in price for the same.
The price of India’s 5% broken parboiled rice has now reached $389-$394 per tonne from $384-$390 in the last week
As India becomes the second country with the highest number of coronavirus cases after the US, the exporters are experiencing lesser availability of containers and mill workers at its biggest rice handling port of Kakinada on the east coast.
As per reports, the vessel loading rates have also gone down by 30% in Kakinada. While the demand is robust the supply is limited and the lack of labour due to increasing COVID cases have further accelerated the problem.
Also Read: Limited workforce and containers spell trouble for India’s Rice Exporters
In Bangladesh also, the domestic price for rice have gone up by 20% over a month amid fear of production shortage.
The recent floods in the neighboring country submerged 50,000 hectares of paddy fields. The value of the damage caused to rice crop was estimated upto $4.29 billion. Amid the calamities, it is believed that the country might have to import rice without any delays.
India’s export for non-basmati rice in the first two months of the FY21, were 11.3 lakh tonnes- 52.5% more than the previous year.
Africa is the biggest importer of this variety of rice, and now as Bangladesh also looks to import rice it is believed that the figure will reach further heights. As per experts, the present situation may lead the exports to touch FY18 figures which were 8.69 million tonnes.
