Food & Beverage News: Top Stories - FCI likely to buy 300 lakh tonnes (30 mt) of rice this season

The Centre expects rice procurement to cross 300 lakh tonnes by the end of the current season in September as it has already purchased 50% of the paddy arriving in the mandis. "If the current trend continues, we will have 20% more rice than last year and that will come to about 342 lakh tonnes, a senior government official told PTI. The daily procurement of rice is more than 60,000 tonnes, the official said. According to the latest FCI data, rice procurement has increased by 20% to 264.72 lakh tonnes since October, including 83.86 lakh tonnes levy rice received from millers. It was 219.79 lakh tonnes during the corresponding period last year.

Though India is in a very comfortable position, the world may experience frequent rice shortages and high prices for the staple as global trade slows, the International Rice Research Institute said. The US Department of Agriculture last month lowered its estimate for global rice trade this year to 29.44 million tonnes from 29.52mt in February. That compares with 29.42mt in 2008, and 32mt in 2007.

USDA's paring of forecast points to lower trade and the risk of making shortages and high prices more frequent, according to Samarendu Mohanty, head of the IRRI's social science division.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's rice exports in the 2008-09 financial year will be less than 3 million tonnes compared with 3.3mt last year because of high domestic prices. Pakistan, the world's fifth largest rice exporter, was hoping to export up to 4mt of rice in the year to June after a bumper crop of 6.2-6.5mt against 5.50mt last year. But exports fell during the November-January period following a government decision to buy rice from traders to enter the export market. However, the government intervention made rice more expensive, hurting exports. Rice accounts for about 8% of Pakistani exports and 12% gross domestic product (GDP).