The FAO All Rice Price Index (2014-2016=100) averaged 126.2 points in June 2023, down 1.2 per cent from May. But the price is still 13.9 per cent above its year-earlier level, mentions the report published on Friday. The FAO monthly report on rice market says prices fell in all the market segments in June, since demand was generally weak or it was confined to a few buyers, as was the case for Indica variety.
Indica is consumed by the South and South East Asian nations as well as by the expatriates of the regions across the world. Indica prices fell by 0.6 per cent globally while its June exports prices were mixed in the major Asian origins. In Pakistan it declined but in India prices sprang 5.0-7.0 per cent above their May levels, sustained by public domestic procurement and influenced by a slow start to Kharif crop (summer) plantings. India's deal with Indonesia to export 1.0 million tonnes of Indian rice to the country might have provided an additional boost to market sentiment in the country, says FAO.
However, Indian export prices for suitable Indica variety were US$ 383-$431 a tonne and Pakistani/Vietnamese varieties $441-$ 486 a tonne in June. Value chain expert Prof Dr Rashidul Hasan told the FE that rice prices in India, Vietnam, Pakistan and Thailand have laid an impact on Bangladesh market. Bangladesh had to import above 1.0 million tonnes of rice in the last financial year of which the government itself brought above 60 per cent, he added.
The private sector could hardly bring 0.42 million tonnes against above 1.5 million tonnes permitted amid dollar crisis as well as a few restrictions by India. But the rice market is comparatively stable in Bangladesh for now as the Boro season harvest has just completed. The market will start getting vibrant from the later part of August after the end of primary trading of Boro rice, he said.
However, rice import has not started in this financial year so far. The public warehouses have a food stock of 1.55 million tonnes of rice for now while the Directorate General of Food (DGoF) has purchased 0.83 million tonnes of the grain from the domestic sources so far this Boro season, said DGoF sources.
The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) data shows rice prices are almost static now compared to those of the last year. Coarse rice varieties were sold at Tk50-54, medium ones at Tk60-65 and the finer ones (non-brand) at Tk 70-92 a kg in the market on Friday, according to TCB and city groceries.