- Restored 'Apollo Belvedere' marble back on show in the Vatican
- Boeing to raise up to $25 bn as strike weighs on finances
- Oil prices fall on easing Middle East fears
- Boeing announces intention to raise up to $25 bn
- Ferguson to leave Man Utd ambassador role as club cuts costs
- Oil prices tumble on easing Middle East fears
- Oil prices hit by easing Middle East fears, most Asian markets rise
- Hopes pinned on peace across Taiwan Strait after drills
- Belgian pathologist and literary star gives 'voice to the dead'
- East Timor fights new battles 25 years after independence vote
- Oil prices drop on easing fears over Middle East, most markets rise
- Reoxygenating oceans: startups lead the way in Baltic Sea
- King Charles III heads to Australia and Commonwealth meeting
- Wall Street stocks hit fresh records as oil prices slide
- Strike-hit Boeing leaves experts puzzled by strategy
- NASA launches probe to study if life possible on icy Jupiter moon
- EVs seek to regain sales momentum at Paris Motor Show
- NASA probe Europa Clipper lifts off for Jupiter's icy moon
- 'Unsustainable' housing crisis bedevils Spain's socialist govt
- Stocks shrug off China disappointment but oil slides
- Stocks diverge, oil retreats as China disappoints markets
- Trio wins economics Nobel for work on wealth inequality
- Ex-Stasi officer jailed over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Shanghai stocks gain after stimulus briefing as markets rally
- Shanghai stocks gain after stimulus briefing as Asian markets rally
- Nearly 90, but opera legend Kabaivanska is still calling tune
- With inflation down, ECB eyes faster tempo of rate cuts
- Is life possible on a Jupiter moon? NASA goes to investigate
- Ex-Stasi officer faces verdict over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Role of government, poverty research tipped for economics Nobel
- In milestone, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- In a first, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Bangladeshi Hindus shrug off attack worries to celebrate festival
- Ubisoft fears assassin's hit over falling sales
- Vietnam, China hold talks on calming South China Sea tensions
- SpaceX will try to 'catch' giant Starship rocket shortly before landing
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgery: reports
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgey: reports
- 'Little Gregory' murder haunts France 40 years on
- Tariffs, tax cuts, energy: What is in Trump's economic plan?
- Amazon wants to be everything to everyone
- Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
RBGPF | 1.67% | 60.5 | $ | |
RYCEF | -0.57% | 6.99 | $ | |
SCS | 1.14% | 13.13 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.6% | 24.84 | $ | |
NGG | 0.68% | 67.35 | $ | |
GSK | -0.01% | 39.125 | $ | |
RIO | -1.94% | 66.41 | $ | |
RELX | 1.82% | 48.26 | $ | |
BTI | -0.01% | 35.445 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.68% | 25.151 | $ | |
VOD | -0.05% | 9.675 | $ | |
BCE | 2.7% | 33.465 | $ | |
BP | -3.77% | 30.829 | $ | |
JRI | 0.1% | 13.1 | $ | |
AZN | -0.66% | 77.585 | $ | |
BCC | 0.09% | 143.11 | $ |
Top rice supplier India bans some exports
The world's biggest rice exporter India has banned some overseas sales of the grain "with immediate effect", the government said, in a move that could drive international prices even higher.
Rice is a major world food staple and prices on international markets have soared to decade highs as the world grappled with the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the impact of the El Nino weather phenomenon on production levels.
India would ban exports of non-basmati white rice -- which accounts for around a quarter of its total -- the consumer affairs and food ministry said.
The move would "ensure adequate availability" and "allay the rise in prices in the domestic market", it said in a statement late Thursday.
India accounts for more than 40 percent of all global rice shipments, so the decision could "risk exacerbating food insecurity in countries highly dependent on rice imports", data analytics firm Gro Intelligence said in a note.
Countries expected to be hit by the ban include African nations, Turkey, Syria, and Pakistan -- all of them already struggling with high food-price inflation -- the firm added.
Global demand saw Indian exports of non-basmati white rice jump 35 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, the ministry said.
The increase came even after the government banned broken rice shipments and imposed a 20 percent export tax on white rice in September.
India exported 10.3 million tonnes of non-basmati white rice last year and Rabobank senior analyst Oscar Tjakra said alternative suppliers did not have spare capacity to fill the gap.
"Typically the major exporters are Thailand, Vietnam, and to some extent Pakistan and the US," he told AFP. "They won't have enough supply of rice to replace these."
Moscow's cancellation of the Black Sea grain deal that protected Ukrainian exports has already led to wheat prices creeping up, he pointed out.
"Obviously this will add into inflation around the world because rice can be used as a substitute for wheat."
Rice prices in India rose 14-15 percent in the year to March and the government "clearly viewed these as red lines from a domestic food security and inflation point of view", ratings agency Crisil's research director Pushan Sharma said in a note.
India had already curbed exports of wheat and sugar last year to rein in prices.
A.Samuel--CPN