Anuário Brasileiro do Arroz 2011 - Unemat

Sílvio Ávila
16
Among the internationally circulating
food items, rice is the most consumed
commodity outside the escalating
global prices trend, a fact that
generated a warning sign from the
Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations (FAO) pointing to
soaring numbers of hunger-afflicted
people around the planet. What accounts
for this fact is the bigger global
rice crop in 2010, a trend that seems
to hold throughout 2011, making sure
there is enough rice available. World
stocks also went up.
A FAO report that circulated in
March registers a 2.5-percent increase
in the production of rice in 2010, up
2.5% from 2009, notwithstanding the
unfavorable weather conditions in
Out of reach
some Asian countries. “It is estimated
that global rice production exceeded
700 million tons – equivalent to 467.3
million tons of white rice – compared
to 683 million tons of the cereal
in the husk, in 2009”, says Patricio
Méndez del Villar, rice market analyst
with the Center for International
Cooperation in Agronomic Research
for Development – CIRAD, in France.
According to him, thanks to bigger
planted areas, which totaled 162 million
hectares in 2010, harvests turn
out excellent. Pakistan was the exception
and lost one third of the crop to
serious flooding conditions. Even so,
surpluses were shipped to Thailand,
Vietnam, Laos, the United States and
to some Mercosur countries, with the
global market maintaining its stability
on the supply side.
International rice trading soared in
2010, with a market expansion of 6%,
or 1.3 million tons. Of all rice harvested
around the world, only 6.7%
was traded between countries. About
90% of the cereal is produced and
consumed in Asian countries. Brazil
ranked again among the 10 biggest
exporters in 2010 and as a major
importer, too. The countries that import
rice are as follows: Sub-Saharan
Africa, Bangladesh, Philippines,
China, Mexico and East Asian countries,
Central and Andean America,
Caribbean and Europe.
In 2010, 31.5 million tons of processed
rice were traded in the global