Flooding trims Bangladesh rice outlook

Flooding is taking its toll on rice production in Bangladesh, lowering the outlook for harvested area to 11.5 million hectares and milled rice to 36.8 million tonnes in the 2024-25 marketing year, according to a report from the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture. The FAS also reduced its 2024-25 forecast for the consumption of rice, the country’s top staple crop, to 37.7 million tonnes, which is 300,000 tonnes lower than its previous forecast due to lower production and higher prices. Since August 2022, Bangladesh has been experiencing very high inflation, which has affected the purchasing power of consumers, the FAS noted. Since July 31, neither the government nor the private sector have imported rice into Bangladesh, the FAS said. Additionally, with India’s restriction on non-basmati white rice exports and high international prices, it is unlikely that Bangladesh will import rice from the international market, as the import costs would be ...