The Market Value of Rice

 The wheat market has posted the top advantages on trepidation that a necessity to preserve supplies for national needs will limit exports in several key producing countries, Ukraine and Russia in particular.We have seen increasing talk that in the aftermath of the coronavirus many nations might start to replicate supplies of key agricultural commodities and in turn fuel that a food scare very similar to what was seen in the 2007-2008 time when food riots occurred in many of countries.Remember that rice and wheat are the two main consumed foods but the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service latest Grain: World Markets and Trade publication prices have rallied for both though international supplies are at record levels and the share of stocks into ingestion is historically high.Global wheat production is estimated at a record high 764.5 million metric tons in 2019/20.Major manufacturers like China, the European Union, India, Russia, and the USA have produced at rates that are greater than adequate to meet rising global demand. Furthermore, wheat harvests in major producing nations in the Northern Hemisphere are only a couple of months off.Wheat ending stocks will also be projected in a record 292.8 million with China holding about half of global stocks.As for rice, while production levels are down year-over-year at 496 million metric tons, a bumper 2019/20 international rice harvest is still expected and even with lower production, entire supplies are upwards from the previous year because of record carryin stocks with 2019/20 stocks at a record 181.6 million metric tons.The attached picture shows the world wheat and rice stocks-to-use ratios with and without China and while world wheat China wheat stocks-to-use ratio is the tightest because the 2012/13 season, we aren't anywhere near the very low levels for both worldwide wheat and rice that has been found from the mid 2000's.