International trade in rice: recent developments and prospects

摘要

The international rice market was dominated by two major tendencies in the 1990s: first, a sharp rise in volume and second, a continued slide of international prices, both in real terms and relative to the other major cereals. In spite of the changeswhich have taken place, the international rice market continues to be regarded as "highly distorted", "segmented", "thin" and "volatile". This paper reviews the factors underlying each of these attributes and discusses whether they continue to give a good representation of the current world rice market.