The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has revised downwards its outlook for global rice output for the 2022-23 season with better prospects for Cambodia offset by lower estimates for Indonesia's harvest.
According to the FAO Cereal Supply and Demand Brief for April released Friday,
world rice production is now pegged at 516 million tonnes for the current season —above average but down 1.6 percent from the record high last season.
“Global rice production figures have undergone a small (0.6 million tonne) downward revision since March, largely due to official lower estimates of the Indonesian harvest concluded last December,” the FAO said.
“This reduction outweighed an upgrade to output prospects for Cambodia, reflecting a strong pace of plantings during the ongoing dry-season cycle.”
WORLD RICE PRICES EASE 3.2 PERCENT
The agency announced separately that world food prices in March, as measured by the FAO Food Price Index, fell 2.1 percent from February and 20.5 percent from a year earlier. The fall from February, the 12th consecutive monthly decline, largely reflected lower prices for cereals and vegetable oils.
The FAO Cereal Price Index fell 5.6 percent from February, with rice prices easing 3.2 percent “amid ongoing or imminent harvests in major exporting countries, including India, Viet Nam and Thailand,” the agency said.
Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse