Vietnam and Thailand will raise rice prices, Mexico depends on imports

Alongkorn Phonbutr, advisor to the Thai Ministry of Agriculture, issued a statement saying that the current price of rice is excessively low and “unfair”.

Currently, the international price per ton of rice is around 400 dollars (8,000 Mexican pesos), a price that “is not logical with the increase in the cost of production, the price of fertilizer and fuel due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. 19 and the Russian-Ukrainian war,” the official said, according to the EFE agency.

The rice production of the exporting countries of Asia represents 90% of the world total. In contrast, despite the fact that Mexico consumes about 1.18 million tons of rice per year, it produces less than 12% of the total demand. The rest comes from Asian countries such as, precisely, Thailand and other exporting countries, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture .

Farmers, traders and analysts recently pointed to Reuters that torrential rains in India’s grain belt, a heat wave in China, floods in Bangladesh or Pakistan, and declining quality in Vietnam could curb yields in four of the world’s top five rice producers.

India’s main rice-producing states Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have seen monsoon rainfall deficits of up to 45% so far this season, according to data from the state meteorological department.

The lack of water has caused, in part, a 13% decrease in rice planting this year, which could mean a decrease in production of 10 million tons, or about 8%, compared to last year, according to BV Krishna Rao, president of the Indian Rice Exporters Association.