Food Official Expects World Price of Rice to Gain in 2002.

Byline: Woranuj Maneerungsee

Nov. 3--The depressed world price of rice is likely to pick up next year due largely to the declining output in major rice consuming countries, particularly China and Pakistan, according to a rice expert from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The global price had also reached its lowest point this year so it should recover next year, said R.B. Singh, the UN agency's regional representative for Asia and the Pacific.

Mr Singh told the first Thailand Rice Convention yesterday that China and Pakistan were expected to import more rice next year to offset their declining output.

In the meantime, China has to open its local rice market. The country is committed to allowing the import of 2.66 million tons of rice and other products this year, and will increase the amount to 5.32 million tons in 2004 in line conditions of its entry to the World Trade Organisation later this month. Therefore. the world rice trade may become more lively as there is a new market to explore.

"Furthermore, rice stocks for the 2001-02 marketing season are expected to fall again, mostly in China. So the tightening market situation in 2002 may pave the way for price recovery," Mr Singh said, quoting FAO reports.

Mr Singh said the price of Thai 100 percent second-grade rice averaged US$180 a ton this year which was the lowest level in the past decade. He believed that the price should pick up next year.