Nikkei Asia quotes Abdullah Mamun, a senior research analyst at the International Food Policy Research Institute, in an article analyzing the reaction of Asian markets on the recent India’s rice export ban.
“India’s decision last month to ban exports of rice sent shock waves through the Asian market for the staple food, inflating August prices by nearly 10% to a 15-year high, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s All Rice Price Index.”
Mamun predicts that irregular weather “will create further price volatility that can last until the next cropping season arrives.” He said, “Fears of high inflation and price volatility have haunted the rice trade for some time, given spikes in other food commodities like wheat as a result of the war in Ukraine.
“Our experience from the 2008 food price crisis [when India imposed an export ban on broken rice and then a 20% levy] indicates such market reaction (rising prices) is very plausible.”
Read article.