Muskan Overseas

  As skyrocketing crop prices fuel fears about soaring food costs and hunger around the globe, one of the world’s most consumed staples is bucking the trend and warding off a broader food crisis at least for now. Rice is the predominant source of nourishment each day for more than 3 billion people, and yet it hasn’t rallied anything like other agricultural commodities from corn to soy and meat. While prices are above levels a year earlier, they’ve declined in recent months in some of the top exporters including Vietnam, Thailand and India on improved supplies from new harvests. One reason for the diverging trend is that rice is grown mainly for human consumption, whereas the surge in crop prices has been driven by booming demand for livestock feed. China’s insatiable appetite for hog feed has combined with poor crop weather to drain world grain and oilseed supplies, sending corn and soybeans to the highest level in more than eight years. Wheat — mostly used to make food including b...

  Synopsis Rising demand for basmati rice in these European countries has resulted in a better price realisation for farmers, mainly from the basmati rice-growing areas in Punjab and Haryana. The common variety of basmati rice, 1121 Pusa, which is mostly exported, has been fetching a 15% higher price at the farmgate from November. KOLKATA: In the midst of the farmers’ agitation, South Asians in Belgium and the Netherlands are stocking up on basmati rice from India, benefitting growers in Punjab and Haryana. India’s exports of basmati rice to Belgium have increased 60% in the first eight months of the current financial year, while imports by the Netherlands have almost doubled. Rising demand for basmati rice in these European countries has resulted in a better price realisation for farmers, mainly from the basmati rice-growing areas in Punjab and Haryana. The common variety of basmati rice, 1121 , which is mostly exported, has been fetching a 15% higher price at the farmgate from No...