Dear Subscriber,
We are pleased to send you the new issue of the FAO Rice Price Update.
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The FAO All Rice Price Index (2002-04=100) averaged 223.0 points in February 2019, virtually unchanged from its revised estimate of 223.3 points for January 2019. Quotations of higher and lower quality
Indica rice receded by 1.7-1.8 percent during February. These falls, however, were largely compensated by a 1.3 percent rise in medium-grain quotations. The latter lifted the Japonica Index to a four-year high of 272.3 points. The Aromatic Index changed little
last month.
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February quotations of Indica white rice declined across much of Asia, as fresh demand remained persistently thin, overshadowing news of the passage of the rice tariffication law in the Philippines.
Vietnamese prices stood most affected by the bearish undertone, sliding by another 6 percent, as new crop arrivals from the winter-spring harvest compounded on the sluggish pace of trade. Efforts to attract sales and remain competitive lowered values in Thailand
and Pakistan. A currency depreciation and a late turnaround in Rabi plantings also provided room for February values of Indian white rice to weaken somewhat. Sentiment was firmer in Indian and Thai parboiled markets, even if lackluster African demand and soon
to be harvested offseason crops prevented parboiled prices from making significant inroads in both countries. In the major South American exporters, quiet trading activities capped upward pressure stemming from seasonal tightness and poor prospects for 2019
harvests, now underway. Meanwhile, long-grain prices dipped to 18-month lows in the United States, depressed by thin buying interest in the context of ample inventories.
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According to the Index, international prices in the first two months of 2019 were 1.1 percent below their levels in the corresponding period of 2018.
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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 89 countries.
You may also be interested in:
·
The FAO Rice Market Monitor:
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,
Shirley Mustafa
Economist
Trade and Markets Division
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Rome, Italy
D-808
Tel. 39-06-570 52202
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
