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Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine
Rice E-Newsletter 30th March , 2015 V o l u m e 5, Issue I
Raipur’s rice millers face FIR NYOOOZ,Raipur Tue,31 Mar 2015 Collector Raipur Thakur Ram Singh has issued Revenue Recovery Certificate (RRC) for recovery of about Rs5,714 lakh from the rice millers who have failed to return rice in lieu of paddy provided to them for custom milling in given time frame in the Kharif marketing year 2013-14, officials said. The Collector has also ordered to lodge FIR against the top ten rice millers in the list against whom the RRC has been issued. According to the officials, the rice millers were issued notice for not www.ricepluss.com R&D Section: Riceplus Magazine
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Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine depositing
the
rice
and
an
investigation
was
also
done.
However, the rice millers failed to deposit the rice in time. The Tehsildars have been directed for immediate recovery of the amount from the rice millers. The rice millers against whom the RRC has been issued include Tayal Foods (Kharora), Manju Agro Private Limited (Raipur), Aishwarya Rice Industries (Kharora), Dauji Chawal Udyog (Kharora), Mamraj and Sons (Kharora), Mohan Rice Mill (Amaseoni, Raipur), Rakesh Rice Mill (Kharora), Mahamaya Rice Mill (Kharora), Anshi Foods (Gidhauri, Raipur), Janata Rice Mill (Kharora), Nirmala Rice Private Limited (Abhanpur), Hariom Chawal Udyog (Tilda), Bharti Rice Industries (Tilda), Neelam Traders (Tilda), Harsha Rice Mill Private Limited (Jarauda), Maa Mawli Rice Industries (Amaseoni), Deepak Rice Industries (Arang), Chhattsigarh Rice Industries (Amaseoni), ML Agrotech(Kharora), Shri Sai Industries ... http://www.nyoooz.com/raipur/77311/raipurs-rice-millers-face-fir
Recovering Much Needed Revenue From Rice Duty Evaders Juliet Alohan — Mar 31, 2015
Some rice importers, who before now thought they had outsmarted the system by technically evading duty payment when they imported in excess of what was allocated to them at a reduced import duty rate, now have to think again. The long arm of the law is waiting and may soon catch up with them.This follows the disclosure by the federal government that it is investigating the alleged excess import to determine who the importers are and by how much they exceed their import allocation quota after which they would be made to refund the due amount to government. Following the federal government’s policy on rice importation which was intended to help boost local production of rice, government gave a concession to some importers to import rice at a reduced duty rate of 30 per cent as against the 70 per cent import duty on rice.But findings have indicated that some importers who enjoyed the concession have imported way above their allocated quota at the reduced rate, thereby shortchanging the federal government of the much needed revenue.Such revenue the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said government is working to recover if investigations launched into the matter prove anyone guilty. Speaking recently at the customs headquarters in Abuja shortly after
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Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine a board meeting, the minister assured that government would recover all such revenue once investigations into the matter is complete. Okonjo-Iweala, who is also the chairman of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Board, said, “We discussed that issue at the customs board meeting and what we asked for as a board is to get updated report on who those importers are, by how much they have exceeded, and what they owe government? Once this information is put together, we will consult with the minister of agriculture and then take a look at it. If they owe us we will ask for it.”As part of efforts to check the worrisome level of rice smuggling into the country, with a view to boosting local production, the NCS, last year, declared rice import through the land borders contraband.Consequently, only sea border was approved as the authorised means of rice import and with higher duty as a way to deter importation of the product. Concession was, however, given to some importers to import a specific quota at reduced rate to augment local production in order to avoid scarcity of rice in the country. According to the NCS, the decision to ban the import of rice through land borders was informed by the need to re-double efforts aimed at putting an end to the menace of rice smuggling which had become a threat to local rice farmers.The public relations officer of the service, Wale Adeniyi, explained that while one or two bags of rice through the land borders from neighbouring countries by individuals were previously allowed, new intelligence report showed that those individuals are often sponsored by smugglers to transport the rice across the borders in bits. “Intelligence has shown that when they come in with one or two bags usually on motorbikes through the borders, they go and constitute them into a big sum somewhere, a development the total ban is intended to check,” Adeniyi said.He added that with the ban, “all imported rice must come through the sea ports with duty paid on them according to the law,” warning that going forward “rice brought in through the land borders no matter the quantity will be contraband. ”The development earned the customs service commendations from local rice growers under the aegis of the Patriotic Rice Association of Nigeria (PRAN) who hailed the decision by the service to ban the importation of rice through the country’s land borders as part of efforts to check smuggling.The commendation was made by leaders of the groups, Alhaji Habibu Maishinkafa and Martins Okereke, who had earlier raised the alarm over increase in rice smuggling which they claimed was costing the country billions of naira in lost revenue while also posing a threat to the existence of local rice production. Acknowledging the customs decision to ban rice import through land borders as timely, the PRAN maintained that nothing short of the closure of the borders against smugglers would save Nigeria’s budding rice industry.
The group noted that it was the higher tariff and consequent high market prices that have enthused smugglers to push large volumes of rice into the country with zero duty, thereby unsettling the federal government’s efforts to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice production by 2015. The group further called on the customs rank-and-file as well as Nigerians to support the services’ decision to ban the importation of rice through the land borders, describing it as a patriotic measure capable of boosting local rice production.
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Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine Meanwhile, the minister of finance while speaking on other issues deliberated upon during the customs board meeting, informed that policy issues relating to the overall customs law was discussed, maintaining that the agency need a new Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) to guide its operations. She also noted that despite the sliding OIL PRICE and devaluation of the naira, government still expects the customs service to do its best in the area of revenue collection, adding, however, that “Customs is not only there for revenue collection.”She said that while the agency’s operations involve trade facilitation, revenue collection will continue to be important in the sense that government have to reverse the situation whereby oil revenue is predominant. “When we are judging the customs we are not just talking about revenue, I want the men and women in customs to know that. I care about how they patrol the borders, I care about how they facilitate trade; it is not just getting revenue.Are goods moving through the customs in a fast and efficient manner, are they providing the necessary assistance to traders, are people feeling like they are being served, is the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) system working? “We want non-oil revenues but we also understand that government policies affect the amount of revenue that customs is able to collect. So if we decide to favour certain sectors as an incentive for investment in the country that means that sometimes those sectors get waivers. It is an industrial policy which is used in almost all countries and emerging markets. If we adopt those, then it has an impact on customs revenue.Thus, we have to weigh the two,” Okonjo-Iweala stated.While maintaining that considerable progress have been made in some of these areas, she disclosed that the report from an independent enquiry commissioned shows that the NCS is now performing better with the use of the PAAR system. http://leadership.ng/blogposts/422063/recovering-much-needed-revenue-from-rice-duty-evaders
Vietnam Rice Boom Heaping Pressure on Farmers, Environment Rice farmer Nguyen Hien Thien is so busy growing his crops that he has never even visited Can Tho, a town only a few miles from his farm in the southern Mekong Delta. "When I was a child, we grew one crop of rice per year -- now it's three. It's a lot of work," 60-year-old Thien, who has been farming since he was a child, told AFP on the edge of his small paddy field.Experts say Vietnam's drive to become one of the world's leading rice exporters is pushing farmers in the fertile delta region to the brink, with mounting costs to the environment.The communist country is already the world's second largest exporter of the staple grain. But intensive rice cultivation, particularly the shift to producing three crops per year, is taking its toll on farmers and the ecosystem.
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Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine "Politicians want to be the world's number one or two rice exporter. As a scientist, I want to see more being done to protect farmers and the environment," said Vietnamese rice expert Vo Tong Xuan.A major famine in 1945 and food shortages in the post-war years led to the government adopting a "rice first" policy.This now generates far more of the crop than needed to feed Vietnam's 90 million population and has catalysed a thriving export industry.Rice yields have nearly quadrupled since the 1970s, official figures show, thanks to high-yield strains and the construction of a network of dykes that today allow farmers to grow up to three crops per year.The amount of land under cultivation in the Mekong Delta has also expanded and quotas are in place to prevent farmers from switching to other crops.But experts are questioning who really benefits.According to Xuan, farmers don't reap the rewards of the three crop system -- the rice is low quality and they spend more on pesticides and fertilisers, which become less effective year by year. - Falling quality He argues the delta would be better off if farmers cultivated a more diverse range of crops, from coconuts to prawns, with just the most suitable land used to grow rice.The country should consider abandoning the third crop and focus on improving quality and branding to sell Vietnamese rice at higher prices, he said.Currently, the bulk of Vietnam's rice is exported at cutprice costs on government-to-government contracts through large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) like the Southern Food Corporation, known as Vinafood 2."Over the last five years, the trend is towards lower-quality rice," admitted Le Huu Trang, deputy office manager at the firm. Some argue that such SOEs have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo as they earn lucrative kickbacks from the huge contracts.But even as salt water intrusion, drought and flooding increase in the delta -- to say nothing of agricultural chemical pollution -- it is also hard to convince farmers to change."The prevailing mindset is to grow three crops... we have to explain two crops is better," said Nguyen Tuan Hiep from the Co Do Agriculture company. Over the last 20 years, Co Do -- which is state-run but a flagship model of how the industry could evolve -- has identified the best rice-growing land in the delta and helped farmers expand their farms.They now work with 2,500 families on 5,900 hectares (14,600 acres) of land, enough for each family to make a living -- typically the average rice farm in the delta spans less than one hectare.The firm invests heavily in high-quality seeds and improving irrigation, while also advising farmers on the best chemicals to use."Two crops is more sustainable long term -- the soil is not degraded, the environment isn't polluted, and value of the rice increases," Hiep said. - 'Ground zero' Climate change is another factor threatening the delta, according to the World Bank Group's vice president and special envoy for climate change Rachel Kyte."This is really ground zero for some of the most difficult adaptation, planning challenges that any country in the world has," she said.Ultimately Vietnam has tough choices to make, including whether to help people transition from a rice-based economy to aquaculture (fish or shellfish farming) or other crops, Kyte added.The environmental costs of maintaining Vietnam's current level of rice production are also rising.The system of dykes, which blocks flood water, are preventing soil nutrients from flowing
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Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine freely and over time "soil fertility will fade", said Tran Ngoc Thac, deputy director of Vietnam's Rice Research Institute. Scientists there are busy trying to breed new strains of rice that require fewer fertilisers and can survive in extreme weather."If farmers don't change, if we can't find a suitable new rice strain, pollution will continue and incomes will drop," Thac said, adding these measures were essential to save the delta. By AFP
http://news.sudanvisiondaily.com/details.html?rsnpid=248035
Agriculture Tops the Trends at Culinary Conference White and wild rice salad on the WASHINGTON, DC -- This weekend, the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) held its annual conference to facilitate an exchange of information, knowledge, and inspiration within the professional food community. In attendance were hundreds of culinary professionals including, chefs, food media, culinary school instructors, food writers, marketers, nutritionists, and academics.Keynote speakers included JosĂŠ AndrĂŠs, an internationally acclaimed chef, and a panel from National Geographic discussing the future of food. "Food and food sourcing are hot topics right now and USA Rice needs to get in on the conversation," said Katie Maher, USA Rice's manager of domestic promotion programs. "There's an opportunity to include farmers in this discussion to leverage the 'grown in the USA' message and tell the rice industry's sustainability story."Other noteworthy topics at the conference included consumer attitudes data and food trend forecasts. "Tapping into the evolving marketplace and understanding the needs of today's culinary audience is important," said Maher. "It helps USA Rice gather new ideas to support our goal of creating awareness for U.S. rice while at the same time advancing the dialog between chefs and the farmers they rely on to produce fresh, healthy, high quality ingredients."
Contact: Deborah Willenborg (703) 236-1444
CME Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures CME Group (Prelim): Closing Rough Rice Futures for March 30
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Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine
Month
Price
Net Change
May 2015
$11.120
+ $0.130
July 2015
$11.365
+ $0.130
September 2015
$11.510
+ $0.120
November 2015
$11.690
+ $0.140
January 2016
$11.845
+ $0.135
March 2016
$11.845
+ $0.135
May 2016
$11.845
+ $0.135
Twenty Four Seven Affordable ECO Meals
Convenience
Store
introduces
Twenty Four Seven Convenience Store has introduced a range of "ECO Meals" that are delicious, hygienic and properly packed handy packs available at affordable price points. These meals are available in 3 variants which has a perfect blend of home made taste with savory essence. The menu of all these variants has been delicately designed to comply with customers top priority list.These Eco meals have three different variants including Veg Eco Meal, Egg Eco Meal and Non-veg Eco Meal. Veg Eco Meal :Daily fare of home styled cooked meal comprising of seasonal vegetable, delicious dal, warm soft chapattis, fragrant basmati rice accompanied with traditional Indian sweet priced at INR 80.Egg Eco Meal : A typical homely meal with delicious and tasty mixture of spicy egg curry, warm soft chapattis, flavorful steamed rice accompanied with mouthwatering Indian sweet priced at INR 90.
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Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine
IPAB allows Lahore group to contest GI tag to MP's Basmati Manish Raj, TNN | Mar 30, 2015, 07.09PM IST
GI tag protects legal rights of reputed agricultural, manufactured and natural goods in a specific geographical territory. CHENNAI: The Intellectual Property Appellate Board has allowed the appeal of Lahorebased Basmati Growers Association (BGA) to contest the award of GI tag for Basmati rice to Madhya Pradesh.GI tag protects legal rights of reputed agricultural, manufactured and natural goods in a specific geographical territory.GI status was granted for basmati rice cultivated in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab and J&K.Madhya Pradesh requested for inclusion of its region into the GI tag list which was granted by the registry on December 31, 2013.This was challenged by BGA and Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) too. PEDA is a wing of the Union commerce ministry. Earlier, while seeking GI tag for Basmati in the above mentioned states, APEDA excluded Basmati regions in MP for grant of tag.After MP requested its name be included in the list, the assistant registrar of GI registry on December 31,2013, directed APEDA to amend its application and include MP's regions in the list of Basmati growing states.
APEDA then moved the IPAB challenging the directive. BGA also filed an appeal in IPAB against the registry's order.More importantly, Lahore-based BGA has opposed grant of GI tag `Basmati' to India "in totality."In May 2010, APEDA filed an application for registering the Basmati growing regions for grant of GI tag under the GI Goods (Registra tion and Protection) Act 1999.On October 25, 2010, BGA served a notice to oppose APEDA's move."Any registration of Basmati as GI under Indian statutes would be in clear violation of BGA's rights as only the concerned parties in Pakistan are rightfully entitled to GI Basmati," claimed the BGA in its appeal. Four months later, APEDA filed its counter statement. Despite providing two extensions , BGA failed to provide evidence in support of its claims within the stipulated period.APEDA then moved an interlocutory petition seeking directions to quash the opposition petition. The GI registry on December 31, 2013, set aside BGA's petition. BGA also appealed against the order of the registry in the IPAB. It said the rice grown on conventional lands in Punjab in Pakistan interacted with soil and climate to yield Basmati Rice in "true sense."The rice growing regions of Pakistan were Gujarat, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal etc. BGA cited the works of Punjabi poet Syed Waris Shah's masterpiece, Heer', to stress that Basmati rice was only grown in Punjab in those days. Now these areas were part of Pakistan, said BGA.
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BGA sought directions to set aside the common order of the GI registry passed on December 31, 2013. In a recent hearing, a bench of chairman Justice K N Basha and technical member Sanjeev Kumar Chaswal allowed BGA's appeal and posted the matter to June 8 for further hearing. Times of India
Sesame rice Published 7:47 PM EDT Mar 29, 2015
This rice accompaniment can be kept quite simple, or it can become more substantial with the addition of other ingredients such as chopped scallion, minced green or red bell peppers, or other vegetables such as cut asparagus. Sliced or slivered almonds can replace the sesame seeds. 1 tablespoon canola oil 1 cup sliced mushrooms 1 teaspoon minced garlic 2 cups cooked rice (brown, white, basmati, or wild rice) ½ cup frozen baby peas 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds 1 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley 1 tablespoon soy sauce ½ teaspoon dark (Asian) sesame oil Dash of ground white pepper, or to taste Heat the canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the rice and remaining ingredients. Heat, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
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