Short term supply and demand imbalances, along with a weak US dollar, low world rice reserves, rising production costs and higher prices of competing agricultural and substitute food commodities help explain the recent tendency for international rice prices to move up, but they do not fully justify the extent and the suddenness of the surge. In recent months, rice export prices staged a remarkable increase, reaching unprecedented high levels in...

With the bulk of the 2007 season paddy crops already harvested, the FAO forecast of world paddy production in 2007 has been lifted by 2 million tonnes to 645 million tonnes (430 million tonnes in milled rice eq.), which represents a modest increase of 4 million tonnes, or 0.6 percent, from 2006. Virtually all of the year-to-year world expansion is expected to arise in Asia, while contractions are anticipated in...