(Rina Dishman, Emily Laur)
Rice is a staple food for billions of people all over the world, prepared and consumed in many different ways. As a complex carbohydrate, it has been mans’ staple food item for thousands of years in various cultures.Today, there exists a multitude of different types of rice: grains of different lengths, textures, colors, and aromas are sold virtually anywhere. After maize (corn), rice is the second most produced crop worldwide with over 40,000 different types of rice grown in every continent (other than Antarctica). The origin of domesticated rice is said to have come from the Yangtzee river valley in China, dating back at least 8,000 years ago. Even today, 92% of rice consumed worldwide comes from Asian farmers in countries like China, India, Japan Vietnam and Thailand.
It is argued that one of the most important measures of Asian countries’ economic performance is the price and quality of its rice. As a result, national policymakers make significant efforts to control the dynamics of the national rice trade to stabilize their respective domestic markets. This type of government interventionism in rice markets is most notable in Japan, where the Japanese government uses high tariffs (sometimes as high as 200% according to OECD’s 2009 report Evaluation of Agricultural Policy Reforms in Japan) to keep Japanese rice cultivation competitive with foreign markets.The top five rice importers (China, Nigeria, Philippines, Iran, Indonesia) account for about 30% of total global trade; the top ten including Saudi Arabia, European Union, Iraq, Senegal, and Malaysia are responsible for approximately 50% world imports. There are two main categories that compose global rice trade: non-fragrant and fragrant rice. Parboiled, Glutinous (sticky), and most long grain white rices fall within the non-fragrant category, while Jasmine and Basmati rice types are considered within the fragrant category.
Until recently, Thailand has been recognized as the “dominant force” in the Jasmine rice market, but competition from Cambodia and Vietnam have both made “important headways into the market” reducing Thailand’s share of the market to less than 50%. Vietnam is currently the largest shareholder of the Jasmine rice market securing, to date, 40% of the global market. The major destinations for intact-grain Jasmine rice exports include China, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, and Hong Kong, while the lower quality, broken jasmine rice exports are primarily sent to West African countries, most notably, Sénégal, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire. Parboiled and other common non-fragrant white rice are cultivated in Thailand and India and exported to Middle Eastern and African countries. Meanwhile, Basmati rice trade is currently dominated by Pakistan and India, with shipments being exported to Middle Eastern countries.
According to World Atlas Online, the global rice market is projected to witness a period of expansion, despite the periods of contraction over the past couple of years. This prediction is made from key countries initiating programs to increase domestic rice cultivation in attempt to cut their dependence on foreign imported rice. This trend is further supported by arguments concerning rice consumers’ buying preferences. World Atlas states “as the world’s top consumers of rice modernize their lifestyles and diversify their respective diets, demand for new varieties of rice is also expected to increase, allowing countries to play increasingly important roles in the global rice market.”
Sources
http://ricepedia.org/culture/history-of-rice-cultivation
http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-largest-rice-importers-in-the-world.html
