Rice prices in China increased sharply because of crop failures

Rice prices in China are increasing sharply, contrary to the annual downward trend at this time due to poorly harvested crops in large rice granaries in Jiangxi, Hunan and Ho provinces. North.

Rice traders and rice millers in China are facing a supply shortage when unfavorable weather and the Covid-19 pandemic impact heavily on the central rice growing provinces and Southern China, pushing up the wholesale price of rice. This trend is expected to last until the end of this year.

However, the central government said that the rice harvest in the northern provinces had a good yield, enough to keep the retail price of rice to consumers from surging before the Lunar New Year, which started from December 12- 2 coming. For the Chinese people in southern and central China, rice is the staple food in their daily meals, so they are closely monitoring rice prices.

The price of rice that the traders buy from farmers and the price of rice after being exported from the mill usually decreases in October every year during the autumn rice harvest. But that trend reversed this year as crops failed in Jiangxi, Hunan and Hubei, China's main rice-producing provinces.

“For example, last year, the purchase price of paddy in the field ranged from 120-145 yuan (416,000-500,000 VND) / 50 kg, but now it has increased from 140-180 yuan (485,000-624,000). VND). Prices will continue to rise in the coming weeks and this trend will last at least until the end of the year, ”said Chen Yun, owner of a 67-hectare rice plantation in Jiangxi province.

Zhou Yin, owner of a rice mill in Hunan province, said the harvest season of all types of rice has been severely affected with yields falling by about 30 percent from previous years due to the impact. of the Covid-19 pandemic and previous months of floods. “Several rice growing regions across the country were affected by excessive rainfall for two consecutive months before the harvest season started,” she said. Currently, rice millers across the country are speeding up buying rice ”.

Rice mill owners are under great pressure from the supply chain and some of them have raised their purchase prices several times a day. In an announcement on the Weibo social network, the Wuzhou Rice Company, told customers that from October 21, the mill's post-milling rice price will change depending on each truck trip as rice output decreases. nationwide this year and rice prices are rising.

"Farmers in our village are hogging rice to wait for higher prices even though the purchase price of 145 yuan / 50 kg bag has been the highest level in the past 5 years". A farmer posted a video on the social network Douyin saying that the yield of rice per mu (Chinese sample, equivalent to 667 square meters) has dropped from 600 kg last year, to 500 kg this year. Therefore, she said that her income as well as many other rice farmers are falling this year despite the sharp increase in rice prices.

But experts in the rice business in China forecast a drop in rice prices thanks to the bumper crop in the northern provinces of China, harvested from late September to October.

"We see a better rice harvest in the North compared to last year even though three storms hit Heilongjiang province this fall," said Wang Yanfeng, Sales Manager of the Rice and Agriculture Company. Jinhe, said.
At a press conference in Beijing last week, Wei Baigang, director of the Planning and Development Department of China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, believed that this year, China will produce more than 670 million. tons of food including rice for the sixth consecutive year.

Source: https://www.thesaigontimes.vn/310168/gia-lua-o-trung-quoc-tang-manh-vi-mat-mua.html