World rice market update: more trade, better weather, lower prices

Dawe, David, Valerien Olivier and Ronald Jeremy Antonio (2024). World rice market update: more trade, better weather, lower prices. Rice Today, December 14, 2024. International Rice Research Institute

Good news: the recent developments in the global rice trading environment and improved weather conditions have lowered world market prices. As these factors lead to lower domestic prices, consumers will find it easier to afford a healthy diet.

Improved trade World prices are now back to levels last seen before India’s restrictions were imposed in July 2023 (see the latest data point in Figure 1). This shift is largely influenced by the major rice trade policy changes in both the world’s largest exporter (India) and the world’s largest importer (the Philippines) in the past months.

Beginning in late September and continuing over the succeeding weeks, India removed nearly all restrictions on rice exports in the face of large domestic stocks and prospects for an excellent forthcoming crop. These restrictions included a ban on non-basmati non-parboiled rice exports (with some exceptions for countries that needed imports for food security), a minimum export price on basmati rice and an export tax on parboiled rice, paddy, and husked rice.