BEIJING: China has cut the 2018 minimum purchase prices for rice by as much as 13 percent, the country's economic planner said on Friday, one of a series of measures aimed at tackling the huge stocks of the grain in the world's second-largest producer.
Prices for early season indica rice are set at 2,400 yuan ($381) a tonne, down 200 yuan from last year, prices for mid-to-late season rice are also down by 200 yuan a tonne to 2,520 yuan and japonica rice was cut by 400 yuan a tonne to 2,600 yuan, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement.
The widely expected cut takes into account "grain production costs, market supply and demand, the price differences between domestic and overseas rice and industry development", the NDRC said.
China holds around 94 million tonnes in its rice stockpiles, two-thirds of the world's inventory and enough to feed India for a year.
Much of that was accumulated through years of state rice purchases from farmers. Beijing sets an annual minimum purchasing price and will buy the grain when the market price drops below that level.
China has already stepped up its exports of rice, mainly to African countries, to help get rid of old stocks and is also planning to cut the acreage sown with rice by 2.2 percent this year.
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