While the pace of inflation has slowed across the United States, food prices are still high in many parts of the world. And there’s one crop that’s coming under increasing focus.
It’s been a couple of weeks since India banned the export of certain types of rice — trying to reduce inflation in domestic rice prices.
The BBC reported there are four main types of rice traded in the world.
Long-grain indica rice is the most common, followed by aromatic rice like basmati rice, short-grain white rice used in sushi, risotto and sticky rice.
India has stopped exporting what traders call non-basmati white rice, which according to government figures, makes up about a quarter of all Indian rice exports.
India is the biggest rice exporter in the world, so any trade move it makes has a wide impact.
Thailand and Vietnam are the number two and three global exporters.
Global prices have moved up over the past two weeks and some groups have reacted with anger.
The trade magazine Successful Farming said that includes the USA Rice Federation, which called the move by India’s government “a cynical ploy to strengthen their domestic market.”
The International Food Policy Research Institute said 42 nations get more than half of their rice imports from India. It says most of those countries are located in Africa and Asia.
