On 9 September 2020, the Government suspended tariffs on imports of rice until 31 December this year. The temporary suspension is restricted to a quota of 400 000 tonnes of paddy and milled (or semi-milled) rice. In general, rice imports from outside the Mercosur area (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) are subject to a 12 percent import duty on milled rice and a 10 percent duty on paddy rice. The measure aims to boost domestic availabilities and contain the high prices of rice, resulting from the increased purchases amid the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced domestic supplies. Harvesting of the 2020 paddy crop was recently completed and production is officially estimated at 11.2 million tonnes, which, although nearly 7 percent above last year’s crop, it is still below the average of the past five years, due to the reduced planted area. Paddy sowings have been steadily declining over the past 30 years due to farmers’ shift to more remunerative maize and soybean crops and sowings recorded the lowest level in 2020.