rice from Myanmar and Cambodia

These are difficult times for Spanish rice. Not so much because of the crops but because of the context in which farmers are forced to compete. After several campaigns marked by a adverse weatherthe sector has achieved increase the surface harvested and your estimates For the 2025/2026 campaign they point to a clear increase compared to the previous one. Both indicators are positive, but they have not prevented the sector from being concerned about another reason: falling prices and pressure imports. There is Who is speaking of an “extreme” situation. Coming back from the drought. The last few years have not been easy for Spanish rice growers. Among other issues, they have been forced to deal with a drought that has conditioned the cultivated area and (what is the same) production. According to the Esyrce surveyprepared by the Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA), so far this century the average area dedicated to rice has never fallen below 100,000 hectares (in 2011 it even reached 122,300). That changed in recent campaigns due to the serious shortage of water. This season things are a little different. In June the MAP estimated that the cultivated area will reach 97,000 hectares, 15,400 more than those calculated in spring and 12.9% more than last year. And it is not the only positive indicator. Agro-Food Cooperatives already speaks that the national rice harvest for the 2025/26 campaign will reach 761,515 tons. In practice, it means improving production by 27.43% compared to the 2024/25 campaign. These are data that are still far from what the sector managed a few years ago (in 2011 it exceeded 900,000 t), but encouraging. Fantastic, right? More or less. Although these figures lend themselves to an optimistic reading, another feeling prevails in the sector: caution. Just yesterday, in the statement In which it reported the increase in the national rice harvest, Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias acknowledged facing an “uncertain future” for national crops. And it is not the first message he has launched with that tone. Just a few weeks ago, during an interview With the Efe agency, the group already reported that it is going through an “extremely extreme” situation marked by prices that in many cases do not cover production costs. What worries you? To the farmers it worries them the impact of the 2024 DANA in La Albufera, how the hail has punished the crops in the Ebro Delta or the influence of the summer rains and heat waves. Also “the increasingly pronounced lack” of tools to confront pests, “phytosanitary restrictions” that condemn the sector to a “competitive disadvantage”. If there is something worrying in the sector, however, it is grain prices and imports. Outstanding prices. The message was conveyed clearly. a few weeks ago Félix Liviano, president of the rice sector of Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias: “In Extremadura it is likely that we will not be able to market 20% of the long rice (indica variety) produced because there is so much imported grain that it is very cheap in the markets.” At that time the indica variety Cascara was priced at 310 euros per tonfar from the 453 in 2024 or the 555 in 2023. The updated data MAPA shows that both indica and japonica are still well below the levels of recent years. “We can’t compete with them”. There is another point, closely related to the drift in prices, on which the sector focuses: the import of merchandise. I told it recently EFE. For some time now, Spanish farmers have been demanding that the entry of rice from other countries be stopped. Above all, they target Cambodia and Myanmar, nations benefiting from a community initiative (EBA, Everyting But Arms) that left cereal imports without tariffs in 2009. The situation has undergone changes since then (between 2018 and 2021 clauses that taxed imports were introduced), but even so the Spanish sector warns that it is under excessive pressure. “Imports are sinking prices in the sector since the safeguard clause disappeared several years ago. We cannot compete with them, because in the EU we have prohibited many phytosanitary active materials, higher labor costs and we produce with sustainability requirements,” explains Ignacio Huertas, from UPA. Hence, it requests “reciprocity” in Brussels’ trade agreements with third countries or the sector emphasizes the importance of providing itself with “automatic safeguard clauses” against imports. Does that much rice arrive? The EU recognizes that it is not self-sufficient in rice cultivation and needs to import tons of rice every year, especially of the indica variety. Its main origins are Cambodia, India and Thailand, although the photo changes slightly if we talk about the Spanish market. “The European sector is at a critical crossroads in the face of ongoing negotiations on the GSP. The current framework, combined with preferential trade agreements, bilateral agreements and tariff quotas, allows the annual entry into the EU of around 635,690 tonnes of milled rice without tariffs, in addition to significant quantities of husked rice, especially basmati varieties from India and Pakistan,” remember Cooperativeswhich warns: “Without minimum corrective measures, the future of the sector could be compromised.” Images | Darío Méndez (Unsplash), Shayan Ghiasvand (Unsplash), MAP and European Commission In Xataka | Rice has just done the unthinkable: from inflationary threat to historic price collapse

China has great plans with its “new silk route.” An unexpected corner of the world threatens to truncar them: Myanmar

China has too many open fronts. On the one hand, the Technological War With the West who is serving to boost your technology industry. On the other hand, the Commercial War which is making natural resources monopolize. Also his impulse to renewable energiesbecoming the main power and growing so much that their companies have beenNzarzado in a price war. To add more pepper to the matter, its great project of the new silk route encounters an unexpected enemy: a neighboring country at war since 1948. New Silk Route. For hundreds of years, the Silk route connected the Southeast Asia with the Mediterranean. It was a series of commercial routes open by China that not only allowed a trade between many countries, but a way of expanding their influence abroad. With the decline of China due to Opium wars Already new commercial routes, in the nineteenth century, the silk route passed to the background. In the 21st century, with the new Chinese economic splendor and the desire to recover that international influence, the country impulse The initiative of the new Silk route. In 2013, President Xi Jinping advertisement His intention to revitalize the old commercial ties between Asia, Europe and in North Africa, this being one of China’s most ambitious strategies. Milmillonaria investment. The advantages seem obvious. Currently, the vast majority of world trade depends on a few maritime routes. The Portenero ships They are a ‘cheap’ solution to transport tons of goods, but they depend on a few points of passage that, if they see interrupted its activity For any reason, They cause world chaos. With a land transport, not only another route is achieved to move merchandise, but you can shorten times. With a land transport from Southeast Asia to Germany, the merchandise would take about two weeks to arrive. With the same route by sea, time is dilated until just over a month. China, being the great producer of the world, has sought to increase its position with this rail transport, something for which you have had to invest Much money in infrastructure deployment and in route width adaptations with certain paths, such as the old Soviet lines with a different path width. HE esteem that this investment has been almost a billion of euros not only in a railroad, but in ports, airports, stations and other infrastructure. Criticism. Countries around the world They benefit of these investments promoted by China. Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Malaysia or Vietnam have received important investments in land and maritime infrastructure. Russia has also improved its rail connections, improving trade between two countries (that they are needing so much). Italy and Greece have also received investments in ports. Egypt, more of the same with the strategy of the Chinese economic and commercial cooperation zone. And Panama also signed a agreement for the expansion of the train line (which just had fall After Trump’s arrival) It is one tremendous strategy both for sea and land that involves many countries and, as expected, it does not do it Too much grace. The reason is that they consider that it is a strategy from China to gain influence on developing countries, something that can play against US interests in countries, especially the Middle East, in which they have military facilities. Myanmar. The problem is that they have encountered a civil war. Myanmar, previously Burma, has been in crisis for two centuries. In the nineteenth century there were the Anglo-Birian wars, which continued in 1948 with the civil war of Myanmar. They achieved the independence of the United Kingdom, but their society was fragmented and a tremendous civil war that persists to this day began. Everything was intensified with the 2021 coup d’etat to overthrow the democratic government, which has led to a new war situation with millions of internal displacements in recent years. And, in that lack of lack of control, with internal struggles to control territories and commercial roads, China has encountered an important stumbling block in the development of its new silk route. Rare earth. China and Myanmar share more than 2,100 kilometers of border, being the Chinese province of Yunnan is the most affected. And the problem is that the presence of military groups and ethnic tensions is preventing China Agreements of the new silk route. The area, in addition, is rich in Rare earthsomething that China dominates and wants to continue controllingso the country is showing warm with the situation of its neighbors. China’s role. As we read in BBCChina did not want to get wet in this whole matter, which is now splashing. When the army gave the coup d’etat, Xi Jinping did not condemn him and continued to sell them weapons. However, he also did not recognize the military as the new heads of state. In fact, experts already consider that China is pressing so that things are again as before, not because they want to return to democracy or peace, but because they want to continue developing their commercial strategy. From the Myanmar regime it is suspected that Beijing is playing two bands supporting both the army and the rebels, who use Chinese weapons. But, the only thing China can do right now is to wait and press on both sides to achieve a peace agreement that allows them to continue with their businesses. Meanwhile, and as always, the people are the one who is suffering the consequences, with more than three million displaced and thousands of dead since 2021. Images | Rowanwindwhistler In Xataka | China has been building a megapuerto in Peru for eight years. It has just been released to revolutionize South America

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