Rice export prices in India this week slipped to their lowest since December 2016 as a weaker rupee allowed exporters to cut rates amid climbing local supply from fresh crops.

An international group of scientists has made a global assessment of rice-cropping systems in search of opportunities to improve rice production. Rice is the main staple food for more than half of the global population. Although the demand for rice is expected to grow, its production is challenged by factors like climate change, energy shortages and resource degradation.

India’s rice exports is expected to surpass its previous year’s record of 17 million tonnes amid dispatches to newer markets. The world’s largest rice exporter sold over 11.79 million tonnes of the foodgrain in overseas markets during April-October in the ongoing financial year, according to government data. That’s a 33% increase over the same period in the preceding year, and includes basmati and non-basmati variants.

Dec 16 (Reuters) – Export prices for rice from Vietnam hit their lowest level in more than three months due to weak demand, while rates in other Asian hubs held steady this week. Rates for Vietnam’s 5% broken rice variety slipped to $400-$410 per tonne, the lowest since Sept. 9, from $410-$414 per tonne last week.

As many as 400 rice mill owners in Punjab, whose mills have been lying shut for the past 11 years due to their inability to return prescribed rice from substandard paddy variety given to them for milling by the government, have decided to launch an ‘agitation’.

All white rice starts out as brown rice before it is polished. All unpolished rice is nowadays sold under the term brown rice,” nutritionist Bhuvan Rastogi said. There is often a debate around the numerous health benefits of brown rice as compared to the white grained variety. But is one type actually healthier than the other, or it is just a fad?

* India may account for nearly half of global rice exports * Vietnam rates edge up to $415-$420/tonne * New supply not expected until November in Thailand – trader By

These requirements include rice criteria for distribution under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and other welfare schemes, which are based on the unified rice specifications for Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21.

Rice millers from Haryana are upset over the present CMR policy and demanded the Union government to constitute a committee to review it

India could account for as much as 45% of global rice exports in 2021 as expanded port-handling capacity allows the world’s second largest rice grower after China to ship record volumes to buyers across Africa and Asia.