The soaring price of rice in China is thought-provoking

Introduction: according to the recent surge in China's rice price on March 13, the national rice price has increased by 20% - 50% since February The government is quite nervous about this, and vigorously sells the state reserve inventory to intervene in the market The sudden rise of rice prices in China will affect China's plans to curb inflation, and may lead to an unprecedented wave of rice imports in 2004 The rise in food costs has driven inflation to levels not seen for many years FQN at present, although the government hopes to increase the income of farmers, the price rise is too high now, which may affect China's economic growth In 2003, China's economic growth was 9.1% Grain prices, such as corn and wheat, tend to rise, while rice is of particular concern Rice is the main food consumption of 1.3 billion people in China On the one hand, the government should help two-thirds of farmers to get rid of the poverty of poultry, on the other hand, it should curb inflation Huang Yiping, an economist at Citibank, said China is not very worried about the rise in food prices, but they are concerned that if prices continue to rise, it could be very significant for inflation FQN insiders believe that China may become a net rice importer this year, and it is possible to import cheap rice from other countries as far away as Egypt This is likely to drive the relatively small world rice market stronger, with world rice prices now at multi-year highs If prices continue to skyrocket, China may be looking for more overseas ships, according to an international trader This is a good opportunity for major exporters, even if China may import from Australia or Egypt, or buy back the previously exported cargo In the long run, the Chinese government hopes that the high price will stimulate more farmers to go to work In recent years, farmers have lost interest in farming In 2003, China's grain harvest fell to a 13 year low, a drop of nearly 6 percentage points, to 430.6 million tons, as farmers increased cash crops, such as vegetables and fruits China consumes about 190 million tons of rice a year, but its rice production fell to 165 million tons last year This trend is likely to continue The U.S Department of Agriculture estimates that China's rice production in 2003 / 04 may be only 115 million tons, the lowest level since the early 1980s That means China has to import from abroad Each year, the world rice trade is about 26-27 million tons, and the consumption is about 400 million tons Therefore, China's potential import interest may cause severe market fluctuations Since the end of February, China has started to order rice in small quantities from Vietnam and Thailand, but it is increasingly difficult for buyers to find small freighters to ship rice FQn