Rice traders and importers in the Kingdom have decided to freeze all new imports of rice in attempts to bring down prices of the produce from exporting countries. With some higher quality brands of rice reaching prices of up to SR4,000 per ton, traders hope to stabilize the price at the same level as last month when global prices registered a significant fall. The move intends to test the waters and make Indian exporters reconsider prices to the Kingdom, one of the major rice importers. The price rise has been attributed to climatic conditions in some countries, such as torrential rains in India two weeks before the harvest which reduced world output by 20 percent compared to last year. This year's rice produce has also been affected by disease and an estimated 200,000 tons bought by Iran from various producing counties, all factors which are thought to have encouraged India to increase its prices. According to the latest Ministry of Commerce report, the Kingdom imports 2 percent of total Indian rice produce, an estimated 4 million tons. The Ministry of Finance has started paying rice traders in the Kingdom subsidies which the government hopes will help lower rice prices for consumers. – Okaz/SG __
