Million of poor rice farmers in developing countries especially Ghana cannot earn a living because of cheap, often dumped rice imports. Increased trade liberalisation would lead to increased cheap imports all things being constant which would in turn compete out local farmers or render most small-scale farmers unemployed. According to Tetteh Homeku and Martin Khor of the Third World Network, the swift reduction of applied tariffs has resulted in a very significant increase in imports of...

This price hike and costly imports of Basmati into UAE also affected this important market and forced the importers to raise their prices. Local rice exporters pointed out that many rice importers in UAE have ceased placing new orders to their suppliers from Pakistan owing to high prices of non-basmati rice in general and Basmati in particular. Irri-6 25 percent broken, the cheapest variety of Pakistan's coarse rice, mainly exported to African countries, has now crossed the level of $295...

A broader-based farm bill could also assist in building the infrastructure of local processing plants, slaughterhouses, and farmers' markets that would help smaller farms with diversified crops or livestock to succeed. At the same time, more healthful foods get little or no help, so their costs rise beyond the reach of many families. The switch to Democratic control of Congress could lead to a bill this year that cuts back on the subsidies to agribusiness in favor of assisting vegetable...

Japan's farm export drive bearing fruit By Hisane Masaki TOKYO - Riding high on the current global boom in Japanese foods, the world's largest net food importer has seen its recently revved-up agricultural export drive bearing fruit, with overseas shipments rising at an increasingly accelerated pace. Japan's farm export drive bearing fruit By Hisane Masaki TOKYO - Riding high on the current global boom in Japanese foods, the world's largest net food importer has seen its recently revved-up...

DHAKA: Bangladesh is reviewing a ban on export of the much-sought-after hilsa fish to India to obviate a retaliatory ban on export of rice from India. Following a domestic shortage - caused partly by rivers being in spate - and a price rise in the local markets, Bangladesh recently banned hilsa exports to India, a major item in bilateral trade. Be the first to post an opinion on this article. Foreign Secretary Touhid Hussain said the commerce and fisheries ministries are reviewing the...

In Thailand, for instance, a tax on rice exports insulated the domestic market from price movements in the international market, depressing the price of rice and reducing the wage costs of non-agricultural employers. The AOA forced open agricultural markets by banning quotas, which were converted to tariffs, and required governments to import a minimum volume of each agricultural commodity at a low tariff. At the same time, under the pretext of controlling the heavy subsidization of...