Dear Subscriber, This is the last time you will see my name below the commentary to the FAO Food Price Update, as I am about to retire from FAO. My responsibilities as rice market analyst in the Organization will be fully taken over by Shirley Mustafa, my younger colleague, who is already in charge of most of the rice market monitoring work and who has been producing the FAO Rice Market Monitor for several years already. I wish to say good bye to those whom I have had the chance to know personally in conferences and country missions (too few) and to all the others that have come to appreciate our work and products. Concepción ____________________________________________________________________ We are pleased to send you the new issue of the FAO Rice Price Update. ____________________________________________________________________ Brief commentary of the month: * The FAO All Rice Price index (2002-04=100) averaged 199 points in May 2016, 3.5 points (1.8 percent), above its value in April. Although the increase was small, it was the largest month-on-month rise registered since February 2014. Higher quotations for Indica and fragrant rice varieties were behind last month's strengthening of the Index. They also lifted the values of the Higher Quality Indica sub-index by 9.9 points (5.4 percent), and of the Lower Quality Indica sub-index by 7.6 points (4.0 percent). Similarly, firming basmati prices, especially in Pakistan, brought the Aromatic price sub-index up by 6.5 points (4.5 percent). Japonica rice prices continued to move lower, bringing the respective sub-index down by 5.3 points (2.2 percent). * The recent market strength was particularly evident in Thailand, where the Thai 100% B white benchmark price jumped by 11.7 percent to USD 447.7 per tonne, its highest level since August 2014. The tendency for prices to rise in the country concerned mostly Indica varieties, reflecting concerns about a progressive tightening of supplies, despite the recent government auctioning of old crop rice from public stocks. Prices also showed a tendency to increase in Pakistan, on continued sales to Africa and dwindling availabilities. Falling availabilities for export also lent support to prices in India. By contrast, the arrival of newly harvested rice along with subdued demand kept prices in Viet Nam steady. In the Americas, prices of South American suppliers moved up, supported either by new prospective sales or shortening availabilities. Instead, they weakened in the United States, which still holds substantial volumes from the 2015 season, only two months ahead of the onset of the 2016 crop harvest. * Despite the marked increase of last month, the value of FAO All Rice Price Index in the first five months of the year still averaged 10 percent lower than in the same period in 2015. ____________________________________________________________________ For more information on prices, you can consult the Food Price Monitoring and Analysis Tool (http://www.fao.org/giews/pricetool/), which gives access to quotations of major traded products, including the high quality Thai white rice 100% B and the 100 % broken rice Thai A1 Super, from 2000 onwards. The site also hosts domestic (retail or wholesale) prices for major food commodities in 95 countries. You might also be interested to visit: * The FAO Rice Market Monitor (four issues per year): http://www.fao.org/economic/RMM/ * The FAO World Food Situation portal, in particular the monthly update on the World Cereal Supply and Demand Situation and Outlook: http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/en/ * The Monthly News Report on Grains: http://www.fao.org/economic/est/publications/grains-publications/monthly-news-report-on-grains-mnr/en/ * The Oilcrops Monthly Price and Policy Update (ten issues per year): http://www.fao.org/economic/est/publications/oilcrops-publications/oilcrops-monthly-price-and-policy-update/en/ * Meat and Meat Products - Price and trade update (four issues per year): http://www.fao.org/economic/est/est-commodities/meat/meat-and-meat-products-update/en/ * Milk and Milk products - Price and trade update (four issues per year): http://www.fao.org/economic/est/est-commodities/dairy/milk-and-milk-products/en/ Kind regards, Concepción Concepción Calpe Senior Economist, Secretary, Intergovernmental Group on Rice Trade and Markets Division Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Rome, Italy D-803 Tel. 39-06-570 54136 Fax 39-06-570 54495 e-mail: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the Rice-Market-L list, click the following link: &*TICKET_URL(Rice-Market-L,SIGNOFF);