"The glut is driving down prices for big rice importers in Africa and China. But consumers in some of the biggest rice-producing nations, including Thailand and India, are paying higher prices as surplus supplies sit in government warehouses. Asia’s surplus will have little impact in the US, which produces different varieties of rice. * * * The two markets [for rice produced in Asia and in US] tend to move independently.
"The surplus is the result of good weather and government programs that encourage rice growing.
"India [is] the world’s biggest [rice] exporter
"The council’s [London-based International Grains Council's] index of global rice prices fell to 200 on Friday, its lowest since September 2010 and down almost 5% this year. However, prices vary widely from country to country, because rice is largely sold where it is produced. Just 8% is traded internationally, compared with about 20% for wheat and 36% for soybeans.
China "will be able to sustain a 98% self-sufficiency rate over the next 10 years, according to a report jointly issued by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
"The US Department of Agriculture expects China to pass Nigeria to become the world's largest rice importer in the next marketing year. The USDA forecast China will import 3 million tons of rice in the year that will begin in July.
"According to the UN forecast, per-capita consumption of wheat has already peaked, and that for rice will peak in 2014, as people shift their diets to meat and dairy products. At the same time, the report said, China's demand for corn and for high-protein food like meat and dairy is expected to rise.
I double check, and indeed the marketing year for rice, in US, is Aug 1-July 31.
(c) The first sentence of quotation 3 probably talks about China, judging from the context. 作者: choi 时间: 8-1-2013 11:51
(3) Carolyn Cui, China Rice Imports Unsettle Market; Enduring shift in supply/demand, or a profitable trade? Wall Street Journal, Jan 8, 2013 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 28052284001608.html
("In the global rice market, a big and surprising buyer has emerged: China. For decades, China's booming rice production enabled it to sell far more rice than it bought. But the world's biggest consumer of the grain has become a major importer. In 2012, the country bought a record 2.6 million tons of milled rice, according to the US Department of Agriculture")
My comment: View the bar charts only. In 2012 China started importing signigficantly more rice than exporting it. As for the 2013-2014 "forecast" in the bar charts, that was in a January report. In between January and the June WSJ report, USDA revised upward China's rice import for the 2013 marketing year. 作者: choi 时间: 8-1-2013 11:52
(4) Elaine Sciolino, A French Dining Staple Is Losing Its Place at the Table. New York Times, July 31, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/3 ... e-at-the-table.html
Quote:
“The average Frenchman these days eats only half a baguette a day compared with almost a whole baguette in 1970 and more than three in 1900.
“At a bit more than a dollar a loaf, the basic baguette is one of the country’s cheapest food staples. Ten billion baguettes are sold every year in France.
“Bread [in France] is ceding its place on the table to rivals like breakfast cereals, pasta and rice.
My comment:
(a) The report does not mention sliced bread. I am mystified; the French must eat sliced bread sometimes.
(b) French English dictionary:
(i) “Observatoire du Pain, the bakers’ and millers’ lobby”
* observatoire (noun masculine): “observatory”
(ii) “‘Coucou, tu as pris le pain?’ (‘Hi there, have you picked up the bread?’)”
* coucou “(noun masculine): cuckoo, cuckoo clock; (exclamation): hello!, cooee!, woo! (Slang)”
* tu (pronoun): “you”