World rice prices have fallen to multi-year lows

World rice prices have fallen to multi-year lows as the currency of India, the world’s largest rice exporter, strengthens, while large Indian stocks and a strong harvest in Asia will limit any price increases this year. While lower rice prices benefit price-sensitive consumers in Africa and elsewhere, they could further erode the already low incomes of farmers elsewhere in Asia, which produces nearly 90% of the world’s rice, according to Reuters. Rice prices fell in April, a month after Delhi lifted the last of its 2022 grain export restrictions, sending export prices for Indian parboiled rice to a 22-month low. Prices in Thailand have fallen to their lowest in three years, and in Vietnam to a near five-year low. Prices are expected to remain at this level until the end of 2025, constrained by surpluses in all major exporting countries, traders and industry executives said. The industry expects prices to hover around $10 per tonne of milled rice by the end of the year. The ...