Global Rice Market Outlook: China’s Imports Hit Record Highs – IndexBox
Published on: January 19, 2022.
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Throughout January-August 2021, China’s rice imports hit 3.2M tonnes, the highest level ever. Indian supplies into China’s rice market have increased sharply, with exports of broken rice reaching 1M tonnes.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — According to a recent report published by IndexBox, the flow of foreign supplies into China’s rice market has sharply increased due to spiking demand for broken rice for animal feeding. From January to August 2021, China imported record 3.2M tonnes of rice, whereas broken rice represented half of the total volume. India became the largest supplier to the country, exporting unprecedented 1M tonnes of broken rice during this period with competitive prices relative to domestic ones in China. In value terms, purchases from India amounted to over $225M. Broken rice is primarily used for feed, snack and liquor manufacturing.
Broken rice purchases from other leading suppliers, namely Myanmar, Vietnam, Pakistan and Thailand, have also increased. Shipments from Pakistan soared from $24M to $90M in 2021 for January through August. Imports from Viet Nam jumped from $131M to $150M over the same period, while Thailand’s supplies soared from $25M to $44M. Myanmar boosted its broken rice exports to China from $41M to $81M.
China’s Rice Imports by Country
In 2020, rice imports into China skyrocketed to 2.9M tonnes, picking up by 16% compared with 2019. In value terms, purchases soared to $1.5B.
Myanmar (911K tonnes), Viet Nam (788K tonnes) and Pakistan (475K tonnes) were the leading suppliers of rice imports to China, together comprising 75% of the total volume. These countries were followed by Thailand, Cambodia, Taiwan (Chinese) and the Lao People’s Democratic
Republic, which accounted for a further 25%.
In value terms, Viet Nam ($452M), Myanmar ($324M) and Thailand ($242M) were the largest rice suppliers to China, with a combined 70% share of total imports. Pakistan, Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Taiwan (Chinese) lagged somewhat behind, together comprising a further 30%.
In 2020, China’s average rice import price amounted to $501 per tonne, flattening from the previous year. Prices varied noticeably by the country of origin; the country with the highest cost was Thailand ($746 per tonne), while the price for Myanmar ($356 per tonne) was amongst the lowest. In 2020, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by Lao People’s Democratic Republic, while the prices for the other major suppliers experienced more modest paces of growth.
Source: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/01/18/2368680/0/en/Global-Rice-Market-Outlook-China-s-Imports-Hit-Record-Highs-IndexBox.html
