Month: July 2018

Monsoon rainfall has deteriorated in July, falling 16% below average this month after being patchy and erratic in the first four weeks of the season, which has delayed crop planting significantly and raised concerns about agricultural output. Total rainfall shortfall since June 1 has widened to 8% after being 5% lower than average at the end of June. As a result, planting of rice, the season’s main crop, is already 15% lower while the area under pulses is 19% lower than the acreage this time last year.

Sri Lanka is forecasting 1.080 million tonnes of paddy (rough rice) to be produced in the ‘Yala’ minor cultivation season that falls in the second half of the year, which is up 18 percent from last year output of 909,000 metric tonnes. Up to the end of May 273,471 hectares of rice had been sown, up from the last year’s extent of only 249,000 hectares amid one of the worst droughts in history.

Bad weather hampers NFA efforts to distribute more affordable rice across the country

With the Korean government emphasizing less rice production, output in 2018-19 is forecast to fall by 6.1%, to 3.73 million tonnes. Consequently, estimated rice planting area has been revised down 6.6% to 705,000 hectares, about 50,000 hectares less than the previous year. The reduced paddy lands were converted to soybeans (8,891 hectares), forage (13,576 hectares), and other various crops (10,384 hectares).

In June alone, the country shipped abroad about 604,000 tonnes of rice worth US$317 million, raising the first half’s figures to 3.6 million tonnnes and US$1.8 billion, respectively. Vietnamese rice was sold at an average price of US$505 per tonne in the first five months of the year, up 13.4% year-on-year. China remained the country’s largest rice importer, making up 30% of the market share, with more than 844,000 tonnes valued at US$449.4 million. Vietnam is expected to garner 23.3 million tonnes of rice in the remaining months of 2018, raising total output in the year to 43.9 million tonnes, representing a year-on-year rise of at least 1.2 million tonnes. Notably, Vietnam’s rice exports to Indonesia rose 290.8 times in volume and 269.5 times in value against the same period last year to reach 596,058 tonnes and US$280.04 million, accounting for 17.3% of the country’s total export turnover to Indonesia.

After being a rice exporter, Egypt will turn into an importer following the governmental measures reducing the rice-cultivated areas due to the water shortage crisis the country is suffering from. Thus, it is expected that Egypt will produce about 3.3 million tons this year as one feddan produces 4 tons, while the Egyptians’ annual consumption of rice is estimated at 4.3 million tons.