We are pleased to send you the new issue of the FAO Rice Price Update. 

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·         The FAO All Rice Price Index (2002-04=100) averaged 213.8 points in November 2018, down 1.2 percent from a revised October level of 216.4 points and representing a 14-month low. Last month’s decline was the result of a 1 percent fall in the Higher and Lower Quality Indica Indices and a 2.4 percent retreat in Japonica quotations. By contrast, the Aromatica Index rose by 1.3 percent, underpinned by expectations of reduced fragrant harvests in India and Thailand, along with a strengthening of the Indian Rupee.

·          With a few notable exceptions, November quotations of Indica rice were seasonally down across much of Asia. Prices faltered the most in Pakistan, sliding to 23-month lows, as new crop arrivals compounded on downward pressure exerted by lackluster demand and another Rupee depreciation. Thai quotations also took a downturn, amid improved supplies from new crop harvests and heightened competition for markets. Instead, public domestic purchases and currency movements sustained an uptick in Indian offers, despite a late month government decision extending a 5 percent duty credit scrip to non-basmati exports for four months. Expectations of sales to the Philippines also prolonged price gains in Viet Nam, even though an otherwise quiet market capped increases. In the Americas, Indica values held broadly steady in Argentina, the United States and Uruguay, while US medium-grain prices subsided for the fifth successive month, amid efforts to secure sales in the Far East. Quotations also softened in Brazil, pressured by subdued local demand and a weaker Real.

·          According to the Index, international prices in November 2018 were 2.2 percent below their level a year earlier. On an annual basis, however, January-November quotations remained 9.7 percent above their level in the corresponding period of 2017.

Since this will be the last bulletin we issue this year, we take this opportunity to wish you a joyful and prosperous 2019!