India export ban: World rice price index jumps to near 12-year high in July: FAO
Food Price Index tracks monthly changes in the international prices of globally-traded food commodities. Speaking of FAO's All Rice Price Index, it averaged 129.7 points in July against 126.2 points for the previous month, it said as reported by Reuters.
As per FAO, the July score was almost 19.7 percent higher than the last year's 108.4 points and was highest since September 2011. FAO warned that this upward pressure of rice prices “raises substantial food security concerns for a large swathe of the world population, especially those that are most poor and who dedicate a larger share of their incomes to purchase food." The agency's overall world food price index also rose in July, rebounding from two-year lows.
As per FAO, the world food prices averaged 123.9 points in July, up 1.3 percent from the previous month while 11.8 percent below its July 2022 level. India, which accounts for 40 percent of world rice exports, last month ordered a halt to its largest rice export category to calm domestic prices, which climbed to multi-year highs in recent weeks as erratic weather threatens production.
The Indian government on July 20 banned the export of non-basmati white rice to boost domestic supply and keep retail prices under check during the upcoming festive season. Earlier on 26 July, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had encouraged India to remove export restrictions on non-basmati rice.
Addressing a press conference, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Chief Economist of IMF said that these types of restrictions are likely to exacerbate volatility in food prices in the rest of the world. The ban had triggered panic buying in many countries from the US to Canada and Australia, wherein thousands of overseas Indians went to
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