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FAO raises 2015 world rice trade forecast to 42 mln tonnes |
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Global milled rice trade could reach 42 million tonnes this year, the United Nations food agency said as it raised its forecast, citing India’s higher shipment and more purchases by the Philippines and Bangladesh, but was still down 1.9 percent from 2014.
Global paddy output forecast for 2015 has been lowered to 749.1 million tonnes due to late and insufficient rains caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in its rice market monitor report for July.
In April, FAO forecast global rice trade at 41.3 million tonnes, down 2.5 percent from 2014, while it said global paddy output could edge up 1.1 percent to 749.8 million tonnes.
India, the world’s largest rice exporter in 2014 with actual shipment totalling 11.5 million tonnes, is now forecast to export 10 million tonnes this year, FAO said in the July report released late on Wednesday, raising its forecast by 7.5 percent.
Thailand’s rice export this year is expected to fall 2.7 percent to 10.9 million tonnes, which will still make it the world’s top exporter in 2015, the report said.
Forecast for Vietnam’s rice sales abroad this year are also cut to 6.3 million tonnes, down 2.6 percent from 2014 and a 3-percent drop from FAO’s projection in April.
Rice imports this year by China, the world’s largest producer of the grain, are kept unchanged at 3.2 million tonnes while its 2015 domestic paddy output would reach 209.5 million tonnes, an increase of 1 million tonnes, FAO said.
The Philippines’ imports in 2015 are now expected to rise to 2 million tonnes, from 1.5 million tonnes forecast earlier, as Manila boosts stocks amid concerns over the El Nino impact on production, the report said.
Bangladesh could import 1 million tonnes for the whole of this year, up from 0.7 million tonnes in the April forecast, FAO said, citing a brisk pace of inflow that has raised the country’s purchase above 700,000 tonnes as of April.
Source : financialexpress.com
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