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RICE AROUND THE WORLD
In the global scenario, consumption is expected to rise 1.1 percent,
totaling 503.5 million tons, according to data from the Food and Agri-
culture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The force behind it
could be human consumption (+1.4 percent), reaching 406 million,
with per capita consumption soaring to 53.9 kilograms in the 2017/18
season, in light of the 53.7 kilograms per person in the previous year.
For animal consumption, reduction is estimated at 1.7 percent.
Global production is estimated at 502.2 million tons, in line with
previous years. The expectation is for a decrease in global sales (-0.7
percent) and the stock could reach 170.5 million tons, up 1.1 percent.
The stock/consumption relation in the 2017/18 period remains practi-
cally stable at 33.5 percent.
Rio Grande do Sul is estimated at R$ 43 in the
2016/17 growing season and in the 2017/18
season(thedropofinputpriceswasneutralized
byhighercostsofenergyanddieseloil).
“In the entire year, we operated below
the average production cost and, in gener-
al, the crop suffered losses”, explains Guint-
er Frantz, president of theRioGrande doSul
Rice Institute (Irga). Sérgio Roberto Gomes
dos Santos Júnior, analyst at the Nation-
al Food Supply Agency (Conab), has it that
a less expensive crop in the 2017/18 period,
the resumption of the economy and con-
sumption on the rise, higher internation-
al prices, minimum price set above R$ 36 a
sack, and the competitiveness in exports in
the first half of the year couldbe responsible
for a more favorable year for the rice farm-
ers, especially the second half of the year.
Élcio Bento, analyst at Safras & Mercado
Consultancy, maintains that the relation of
BrazilwiththeMercosurcountries,asfarasthe
international market goes, will be one of the
determiningfactorsthatwilldictatetheperfor-
manceofthesectorandthepricesofthecere-
al in 2018. “When it comes to setting the pric-
es,thereferencewillbetheimportparityprice
in the Mercosur countries”, he summarizes.
The rice farmers themselves started sectoral
movements in search of a solution for prob-
lemsenduredbythe supplychain.
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