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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
U.S. rice millers and farmers are counting on Kenya’s United Nations-sanctioned plan to lead an international force to bring stability to Haiti – the largest foreign market for U.S. milled rice.
Legislation is being introduced in the House and Senate to create a task force composed of officials with USDA and the U.S. Trade Representative's Office to identify agricultural trade barriers such as India’s farm subsidies that should be challenged at the World Trade Organization.
Haiti is the largest foreign market for U.S. milled long grain rice and the escalation of gang violence there is threatening the ability of the U.S. to export grain to the country.
People in some of the poorest and hungriest nations in the world may be the hardest hit by India’s decision last month to ban exports of long grain, non-basmati rice – a move that’s already pushing global prices higher and forcing import-dependent countries to scramble to find supplies, according to analysts and trade data.
India says its latest ban on rice exports is an effort to fight domestic food inflation, but the U.S. rice sector says the measure will add large quantities of cheap grain to the international market and push down prices that American farmers get for their crop.
Haiti has remained a major customer of U.S. rice through decades of turmoil, but that has come to an end. The implosion of the country that has descended into the chaos of gang rule and disease outbreak has made it impossible for U.S. exporters to keep supplying the country even in its time of most dire need.
