China greatly increases rice imports due to a rise in domestic prices

In the first 5 months of this year, rice imports into China increased sharply and reached more than 2.2 million tons, equal to 3/4 of the total import volume of last year.

China's rice imports reached over 2.2 million tons in the first five months of the year. Photo by: TL.

According to the Center for Industry and Trade Information (Ministry of Industry and Trade), Chinese media reported that the country's rice imports in the first five months of 2021 reached more than 2.2 million tons, equal to more than 3/4 of the total volume of rice imports throughout 2020.

The price of long grain rice in the Chinese market this year increased significantly compared to last year, making rice importing more attractive.

Previously, China imported rice mainly from Vietnam and Thailand, but since 2014, most of the increase in rice imports is from Myanmar and Pakistan.

At the end of 2020, China allowed India to export non-basmati rice to this market and since then India has quickly become one of China's leading rice suppliers. The price of Indian long grain rice is 25% cheaper than that of domestic Chinese rice.

Most of China's imported rice is long grain rice. The price of long grain rice in China has increased by nearly 20% since mid-2020. South Asian suppliers have significantly lower prices than domestic prices. That explains why China increase their imports of long grain rice in recent years.

Recently, the auction speed of long grain rice stocked from the Chinese government warehouse has been decreasing. Therefore, China is expected to continue importing a large number of long grain rice and broken rice, while imports of medium grain rice are expected to continue to decline.

Information from the General Department of Vietnam Customs shows that China is the second largest market for Vietnamese rice. In the first 7 months of this year, Vietnam's rice exports to China have reached 643 thousand tons, equal to 338 million USD, up by 30.5% in volume, up by 15.3% in turn-over, accounting for 18% of total volume and total rice export turn-over of the whole country.