Global Handbook of Rice Policies

This Handbook aims to provide a global coverage of policy instruments used by governments to realize objectives related to rice production and supply, rice markets, and trade. The handbook covers major rice markets in Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. There are similarities in policies in general and within regions. Given the importance of food security to all countries, policies are designed to increase and supplement farm income to sustain domestic production while ensuring access to and availability of affordable rice for consumers. Rice trade is still regulated mainly through import tariffs to protect domestic producers. Import tariffs are implemented in several countries in Southeast and South Asia and Africa, and in all countries reviewed in East Asia and the Americas. Based on the summary tables below, we can also see that two-tier tariffs are most common in East Asia, with them being implemented in all four of the countries reviewed. Several Asian countries procure rice through state-owned enterprises (SOEs). These countries provide significant control to SOEs to ensure stable domestic prices and control of foreign trade. From the recent developments brought about by the export restrictions imposed by India, state trading as well as government-to-government procurement have both been used to ensure that domestic supplies remain adequate. Asian importers such as Indonesia and Bangladesh have set up government-to-government trade agreements with major Asian exporters such as Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar to ensure domestic food availability. India has also secured several exemptions to its trade restrictions for some of its trade partners, most of which are for African countries to provide them with access to lower-priced rice while allowing India to remain as the top rice exporter in the world. Subsidies also remain prevalent, especially in South and Southeast Asia, as well as in some African countries. These subsidies are aimed toward raising farmer income and providing aid for farmers to produce efficiently and continuously. Recent subsidies have been implemented to help farmers navigate increases in fertilizer prices. Aside from providing incentive and aid to farmers, ensuring consistent production also leads to higher domestic supply, less reliance on imports, and lower consumer prices. ________________________ † Published by the International Rice Research Institute. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14799014. To protect domestic farmers, several countries in Asia and the Americas also implement minimum support prices. Similar to subsidies, minimum support prices are used to encourage domestic production for both rice-importing and -exporting countries. Major exporting countries such as Thailand and India implement them to ensure their place in the world market while importers such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, and Sri Lanka implement them to secure food availability in their domestic markets. Lastly, measures such as temporary export bans and price controls are implemented in several African countries. Such measures are usually implemented to control volatile domestic prices and ensure domestic food access.