Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

www.ricepluss.com

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter

11th December, 2014

Volume 4 Issue: XI

Vol 4, Issue XII

Todays News Headlines

Thailand to sell rice at prices competitive with
Vietnam
Commerce Ministry prepares to sell stockpiled rice
in Africa and Middle East
New paddy variety developed for Bihar's rain
deficient areas
Finding rice traits that tackle climate-change
challenges
Mexico Re-imposing Import Duty on Asian Milled
Rice
USA Rice's The Whole Grain Newspaper Launched
Weekly Rice Sales, Exports Reported
CME Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures
No silver bullet in the 2014 farm bill
Could arsenic in rice be dangerous for children?
Beware of rice varieties contaminated with arsenic
Procurement agencies told to pay VAT on sale of
paddy byproducts
Customs seizes P200M imported glutinous rice

Contact & Visit

www.ricepluss.com
mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com
7th Floor,Suite 11 Central Plaza New Garden Town Lahore-54600
Landline :92 3584 5551
For Advertisement Specs & Rates:
Contact: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com 92 321 3692874

Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

News Detail.
Thailand to sell rice at
prices competitive with
Vietnam
VietNamNet Bridge Hai Quan newspaper has
quoted foreign sources who say that Thailand
will sell both newly harvested and inventoried
rice at low prices. This will create challenges
for Vietnam, which competes with other rice
exporters by offering low prices.

Reasonable prices are the biggest

competitive advantage of Vietnamese rice.
But now, if Thailand also sells rice cheap,
the Vietnamese competitiveness will not
work, an analyst commented.Dat Viet
commented that Vietnam several times has
failed in international bids, even though it
offered very low prices to obtain
contracts.Nguyen Ngoc De from Can Tho
University commented that this was a result
of the sell cheap, buy cheap policy
pursued by Vietnamese exporters.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran
Tuan Anh has urged relevant units to carry
out surveys to discover how the Thai policy
would affect Vietnam.In late November, the
Vietnam
Food
Association
(VFA)
unexpectedly lowered the floor export price
to $380 from $410 per ton for 25 percent
broken rice.Vo Tong Xuan, the leading rice
expert in Vietnam, commented that the
move shows the Vietnamese exporters
intention to speed up the sale of rice in the

world market.However, Xuan noted this is

not good news for farmers, because when
exporters sell rice cheaply, they will not pay
farmers high prices for rice.Analysts noted
that while Vietnamese enterprises are busy
selling stocked rice in order to balance the
export volume in the last months of the year,
Thai exporters have used the time to gain the
Malaysian, Indonesian, Chinese, Filipino
and African markets.They said that the
competition will be stiffer for Vietnamese
exporters, who have to compete with
Thailand, India, Pakistan and Cambodia.
In 2014, Cambodias PhkaRomdoul for the
third consecutive time is recognized as the
most delicious rice in the world. Cambodia
has made big progress from an unknown
rice producer to a big rice exporter in the
world.A report of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development
(MARD) showed that Vietnam exported
443,000 tons in November, worth $217
million, raising total export volume in the
last 11 months to 6.03 million tons, worth
$2.79 billion.The average export price was
$460.9 per ton, an increase of 4.61 percent
over the same period last year.According to
the National Steering Committee on Rice
Export Regulation, the demand is still high
with big importers in the region trying to
increase imports.Meanwhile, some key
markets continue making transactions.
China, for example, still tops the list of
Vietnams rice biggest importers, which
consumes 31.1 percent of Vietnams
exports.
Dat Viet
Tags:Thai rice,vietnamese rice,

Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

Commerce Ministry
prepares to sell stockpiled
rice in Africa and Middle
East
Published on Thursday, 11 December 2014
20:03
A paddy field in Hpa-an, Kayin State.
(Photo-Aung Zaw Htun/EMG)
A policy to explore foreign rice markets
and to ensure the product quality is
currently in the pipeline, according to the
Ministry of Commerce.

Weve just started drawing it. The team

responsible for this was formed very
recently. Its a trade-related policy. The
Export Strategy (NES) focuses particularly
on exports. But the rice policy comprises
manufacturing processes as well. In
addition, we will prioritise drawing a rice
export policy, said Dr Maung Aung, an
advisor to the ministry.These policies are
meant to make rice exporting more
consistent and to maintain the quality of
Myanmar rice exports.Ministry officials are
working under the guidance of the Myanmar
Rice Federation (MRF) and other relevant

organisations.Dr Min Aung, a senior advisor

at the MRF, urged the quick drafting
process.
Some procedures in rice industry need to
be relaxed. Rice merchants face difficulties,
like losing market demand. On the other
hand, the farmers also struggle with price
drops and quality control problems. I
advised the government to draw a policy
that can relieve the anxieties of both farmers
and merchants, Dr Min Aung suggested.As
agriculture is the central pillar of Myanmars
export economy, a policy that solves all the
challenges such as growing local
consumption, swelling foreign exports,
quality assurance and maintaining a
sustainable paddy industry is urgently
needed.Domestic consumption is the first
priority. The livelihoods of farmers,
merchants and each and every individual
involved in the rice business is the secondmost important point, said Tin Htut Oo, a
presidential economic advisor.
The supply chain from the paddy field to the
platter should be consistent under a policy,
the presidential advisor said.But such a
policy is not available yet.The NES, which
is meant to enhance the quality and quantity
of exports, is set to be released late this year.
It allocates rice, beans, fishery products,
wood-based materials and garments as the
countrys
highest
potential
export
products.The [rice] policy is currently
being drafted. It is important and also related
to the export strategy. Besides export
process, domestic consumption and prices

Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

are also needed to be considered. It takes a
well-built policy to make sure the whole
supply chain grows strong, said Win Myint,
the director of Department of Trade
Promotion under the Commerce Ministry.

New paddy variety

developed for Bihar's rain
deficient areas

harvested around 50 lakh tonnes of paddy in

2013 as poor rains in July-August badly hit
paddy transplantation.Rice production in
Bihar was 36.4 lakh tonnes in 2009-10
which increased to 81.87 lakh tonnes in
2011-12 and 87 lakh tonnes in 2012-13.

Finding rice traits that

tackle climate-change
challenges
by Ann Perry

Patna, Dec 11 (IANS): Scientists in Bihar

have developed a new paddy variety for rain
deficient areas. It is likely to help millions of
farmers in the state's drought-prone areas."A
team of scientists at Bihar Agriculture
University (BAU) at Sabour in Bhagalpur
district, have developed a new variety of
paddy for rain-deficient areas," Vice
Chancellor
M.L.
Choudhary
said
Thursday.Choudhary said the aerobic
variety is named Sabour Ardhjal and
requires less water compared to other
varieties."This variey will require 50 percent
less irrigation compared to other paddy
varieties," he said.

Ann Perry
Cultivated rice competing with weedy red
rice (the taller plants among the rows) near
Stuttgart, Arkansas. ARS scientists are
examining weedy red rice for characteristics
that could be used to adapt cultivated rice to
climate
change.

Choudhary said that the outcome of the first

trial of new variety in rain deficient areas in
Munger, Patna, Gaya, Banka, Jehanabad,
Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura, Nalanda districts
was satisfactory.Millions of farmers in Bihar
have been hit by consecutive droughts in the
state in last five years. Last year the
government declared 33 of 38 districts as
drought-hit. The state recorded 25 percent
deficit in its annual rainfall.After attaining
record paddy production of over 80 lakh
tonnes in the 2012 kharif season, Bihar
Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

People around the world depend on food
crops adapted to an array of temperature and
precipitation regimes, but those conditions
are in flux because of global climate change.
So scientists want to identify plant traits that
could be used to develop food-crop cultivars
that thrive despiteor perhaps because of
shifts in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, water
availability, and air temperature. As part of
this effort, Agricultural Research Service
plant physiologists Lewis Ziska, Martha
Tomecek, and David Gealy conducted a
study of several rice cultivars to determine
whether changes of temperature and CO2
levels affected seed yields.
They also looked for visible traits that could
signal whether a plant cultivar has the
genetic potential for adapting successfully to
elevated CO2 levels.For their study, the
scientists included weedy red rice, which
infests cultivated rice cropland. Despite the
plant's downside, previous assessments
indicated that weedy rice growing under
elevated CO2 levels had higher seed yields
than cultivated rice growing under the same
conditions.
The scientists used environmental growth
chambers to study genetically diverse rice
cultivars at current and future projections of
atmospheric CO2 and a range of day/night
air temperatures. They observed that on
average, all the rice cultivars put out more
aboveground biomass at elevated CO2
levels, although this response diminished as
air temperatures rose.
For seed yield, only weedy rice and the rice
cultivar Rondo responded to elevated CO2
levels when grown at optimal day/night air
temperatures of 84 F and 70 F. The
researchers were also intrigued by an
additional observation: Only weedy rice
gained significant increases of aboveground
biomass and seed yield under elevated CO2

levels at the higher temperatures expected

for rice-growing regions by the middle of
the century.

In Beltsville, Maryland, plant physiologists

Lewis Ziska and Martha Tomecek examine
the response of different rice cultivars to
changes in carbon dioxide and temperature.
ARS scientists at Beltsville and Stuttgart,
Arkansas, are working to more .When
Ziska and colleagues analyzed the study data
for the weedy rice, they observed that seedyield increases under elevated CO2 resulted
from an increase in panicle (seed head) and
tiller production. Tillers are stalks put out by
a growing rice plant, and as the plant
matures, the seed headswhere rice grain is
produceddevelop at the end of the tillers.
Since rice tiller production is determined in
part by a plant's genetic makeup, crop
breeders might someday be able to use this
weedy rice trait to develop commercial rice
cultivars that can convert rising CO2 levels
into higher seed yields. To the researchers,
these findings also suggest that the weedy,
feral cousins of cultivated cereals could have
other traits that would be useful in adapting
to the environmental challenges that may
come with climate change.
"We know that atmospheric CO2 and air
temperatures will increase together," says
Ziska. "Ideally, we can develop plants that
respond well to elevated CO2 levels and
incorporate traits that favor plant survival
despite temperature changes." Explore
further: Rice yield increase of 30 percent
enabled by use of a photosynthesis 'switch,'
researchers learn

Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

http://phys.org/news/2014-12-rice-traitstackle-climate-change.html

closely and will keep members up to date on

events as they transpire.

Mexico Re-imposing
Import Duty on Asian
Milled Rice

Contact: Jim Guinn (703) 236-1474

Advantage: U.S. rice

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO -- Yesterday, the
Government of Mexico (GOM) announced a
re-imposition of a 20 percent duty on Asian
rice to begin on vessels arriving after
January 10, 2015.The GOM removed the
long-standing duty on grains from all origins
back in 2008 as a way to reduce the price of
basic commodities to its population. With
cheap prices and zero duty, Asian rice began
to enter Mexico, and by 2013 and 2014
imports had skyrocketed, cutting into the
traditional U.S. market for paddy and milled
rice. The U.S. market share for milled rice,
once more than 95 percent has fallen this
year to 34 percent. Vietnam and Thailand
are the primary origins making inroads
today. Pakistan, once a player, can no
longer export to Mexico due to
phytosanitary issues.
"Local traders, packers, and millers we've
spoken with believe the first few months of
2015 will present great opportunities for the
sale of U.S. rice to Mexico, given our large
high-quality crop and the new import duty
on Asian origin rice," said Betsy Ward, USA
Rice Federation's president and CEO.Ward
went on to point out that the competitive
advantage could end up being short-lived if
the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is signed
in 2015. "Mexico is anxious to conclude
TPP talks, and as it looks now, Vietnamese
rice would gain back some or all of its duty
advantage under that agreement," she said.
USA Rice is monitoring this situation very

USA Rice's The

Whole Grain Newspaper
Launched

LITTLE ROCK, AR -- The USA Rice

Federation debuted a new publication at the
2014 Outlook Conference here this week to
take the place of the organization's
traditional annual report. The Whole
Grain is a full-color 16 page tabloid-style
newspaper that will be published quarterly
and distributed widely to the U.S. rice
industry.Outlook Conference attendees
received a copy of the newspaper in their
welcome packets, and more than 23,000
copies were mailed to growers, landowners,
and others affiliated with the rice industry.
The cover story for this first edition of The
Whole Grain was an in-depth look at the
Mexican market - the top destination for
U.S.-grown rice. Other stories included
interviews with USA Rice Federation
Chairman Dow Brantley, and president and
CEO Betsy Ward; the recent rice export

Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

victory in Iraq; the ground-breaking
stewardship partnership between USA Rice
and Ducks Unlimited, an update on the
regulatory landscape, and several articles on
the group's domestic promotions work,
including how nutrition policy has enhanced
sales opportunities for rice.
Michael Klein, USA Rice vice president of
marketing and communications said, "Our
goal in switching up the format of the annual
report in favor of the tabloid is to provide
more engaging content to our members, and
to go deeper into important issues than we
can here in the Daily. We're looking
forward to expanding our coverage, our
circulation, and offering advertising
opportunities in future issues." To receive
additional copies of the tabloid to distribute
in your community, please contactDeborah
Willenborg at (703) 236-1444.
Contact: Colleen Klemczewski (703) 2361446

Weekly Rice Sales, Exports

Reported
WASHINGTON, DC -- Net rice sales of
86,800 MT for 2014/2015 were reported for
Haiti (29,300 MT), Libya (28,800 MT),
Japan (13,000 MT), Honduras (12,000 MT,
including 8,000 MT switched from unknown
destinations), and Guatemala (5,000 MT),
according
to
today's Export
Sales
Highlights report.

43 percent from the prior four-week

average. The primary destinations were
Libya (28,800 MT), Haiti (23,700 MT),
Japan (21,600 MT), Colombia (13,300 MT),
and Honduras (8,500 MT). This summary is
based on reports from exporters from the
period
November
28
December 4.

CME Group/Closing
Rough Rice Futures
CME Group (Prelim): Closing Rough Rice
Futures for December 11

Net
Change

Month

Price

January 2015

$12.085

- $0.175

March 2015

$12.355

- $0.155

May 2015

$12.625

- $0.135

July 2015

$12.825

- $0.135

September
2015

$12.185

- $0.050

November
2015

$12.110

- $0.025

January 2016

$12.110

- $0.025

Decreases were reported for unknown

destinations (8,000 MT). Exports of
110,300 MT--a marketing-year high--were
up 71 percent from the previous week and
Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

No silver bullet in the 2014
farm bill
Dec 10, 2014Forrest Laws | Delta Farm
Press
Most farmers are gamblers at heart. They
risk everything when they plant their crops
in the spring in the hope they will be
rewarded at harvest.But growers should not
bet the farm when they sign up for the
Agricultural Act of 2014, says Greg Cole,
president and chief executive officer at
AgHeritage Farm Credit Services, which is
based in Little Rock, Ark.
Dont look for a silver bullet in this farm
bill because its not there, said Cole, who
was one of the speakers for a panel
discussion on The 2014 Farm Bill: What
You Need to Know at the USA Rice
Outlook Conference in Little Rock.Heres
the key thing in making your selection, said
Cole, referring to the complex options
available under the new law. Try to look at
it from a more global basis in terms of what
can you live with and what can you not.
Heres the most important thing you can
walk away with: Dont bet your farm on this
farm bill safety net to make your decision.
Cole, who also spoke at the annual Rice
Outlook Conference following the passage
of the 2008 farm bill, said he believes this
farm bill is much more complex and less
forgiving when producers make a mistake in
signing up for the programs.I said this
many times when we journeyed through the
farm bill debate and I attended many
meetings representing Farm Credit: The
curtailment or elimination of direct
payments will affect the rice industry of
eastern Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta
more than anywhere else, he said.
Direct payments

Obviously, you as a producer liked the

direct payments and we as ag lenders liked
it, too, because you knew how much you
were going to get, when you were going to
get it and it was timed to be in cycle with
that crop. Now the world has changed.
Were dealing with a lower safety net, a
radically different structure having more of
an insurance counter-cyclical feature and a
shallow loss concept.
RELATED
How can you make the right farm bill
decisions
Farm bill decision aid goes live as USDA
announces farm bill rules
Theres no doubt the provisions of the
Agricultural Act of 2014 are more complex
than previous farm bills. Cole and panelists
Dr. Joe Outlaw, co-director of the
Agricultural and Food Policy Center at
Texas A&M University, and William Cole,
a crop insurance agent from Batesville,
Miss., who chairs the Crop Insurance
Professionals
Association,
encouraged
farmers to seek help in making their
decisions.You have to live with the
decision for the life of the farm bill though
the pricing environment will change over
that time, and youre making year-to-year
crop loans, said Greg Cole.
These payments will be hard to quantify,
theyre paid in arrears or after the fact and
will actually be paid when youre almost
ending the next crop.Because of the
complexity, he said, ag lenders will need to
evaluate credit requests on a more individual
basis and look at many aspects to determine
the borrowers risk-bearing ability, Cole
noted.Consideration will need to be given
to the safety net selection in concert with the
crop insurance selection and the overall
marketing plan and all this has to be
interfaced in with the providers lending

Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

capacity. No doubt the complexity will
increase for the borrower and for the ag
lender.In the days ahead, the key to success
may well be making the best uses of the
resources available and making the best
decisions, he noted.
Theres good decision tools like Joe
(Outlaw) alluded to, the online tools that are
available, the interface with crop insurance
agents, peer groups and other key folks.Cole
urged farmers not to risk everything on the
safety net in the new law. Dont allow the
government to keep you in business for this
is only one component of a whole menu of
risk management tools that you have in your
operation and your overall management
equation.
Producer CEOs
You as agricultural producers are owners of
your business, youre CEOs. You have full
responsibility and accountability. And as I
talked about the migration of the intellectual
business model, your success will be
directly tied to the people you surround
yourself with to either influence your
decision or make the decision.Those can be
people like your accountant, your
agronomist, your tax consultant, your FSA
representative, your ag lender. Again, the
goal is to build the intellectual capital to
generate the financial capital, said Cole.
If they dont already have the information,
Cole urged growers to determine their cost
of production, both variable and fixed and
on a per-acre or per-bushel or pound
basis.My observation is that many
producers are not strong in that area, he
said. You need to look at your total cost
structure. Are you growing paychecks and
payments greater than acres? Do you have a
focused scale for your operation?Cole said
his organization is already reviewing loans
for 2015 and finding that some growers are

losing money, some are breaking even and

some are making a little money following
the general downturn in prices of recent
months.
I asked whats the difference there? he
said. Its in that fixed cost, and looking at
the total amount of payments that youve
got, your living costs and those variables.
Knowing your numbers is going to be
critical.
What can it do for you?
Each producer has to step back and ask
what do you want this farm bill to do for
you? said Outlaw. For many years our
producers have used the direct payments
because they were steady, and you knew
what was going to happen. People were
using those as a gigantic crutch.Thats just
me being me. If I made you mad, Im sorry.
But the reality is weve got to decide what
were going to use in this farm bill. A lot of
producers are saying Im going to take
whatever I can get the most money for the
fastest because thats the way I feel about
this, and I dont know if were going to get
anything else.
Others are saying I need to know that if
things get to a certain level of bad prices Im
going to have that safety net provided by the
government. Each person has to step back
and
make
that
decision
for
themselves.Outlaw noted that farmers can
enter a wide range of prices in the new farm
bill decision aid tool developed by the
Agricultural and Food Policy Center at
Texas A&M. Im suggesting that people
put in the prices that if they happen, farmers
dont want to have to go see their lender if
this happens. Those are the prices I want to
analyze not high prices that dont matter
because youre not going to get anything.

Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

For more information and to see the new
decision aid, visit www.usda.gov/farmbill.
Source with thnaks: http://deltafarmpress.com/government/nosilver-bullet-2014-farmbill?utm_source=USA+Rice+Daily%2C+December+11%2C+2014
&utm_campaign=Friday%2C+December+13%2C+2013&utm_me
dium=email

Could arsenic in rice be

dangerous for children?
CTV Vancouver: Limiting children's rice
intake?
Parents told to limit childrens rice intake
A new report may have you reevaluating
how much rice you feed your children.
Sandra Hermiston and Lynda Steele, CTV
Vancouver
Published Wednesday, December 10, 2014
6:00AM PST
Last Updated Wednesday, December 10,
2014 7:46PM PST

A new report may have you reevaluating

how much rice you feed your children.Rice
and many products containing rice have
significant levels of inorganic arsenic, which
is linked to cancer. Now, new guidelines

have been released for limits on how much

rice you and your children should
eat.Consumer Reports analyzed Food and
Drug Administration data on more than 600
foods that contain rice and found some with
worrisome levels of inorganic arsenic.
We found that hot rice cereal and rice pasta
can have much more arsenic than we saw in
our previous tests. So we now recommend
that children rarely eat these foods, which
means not more than twice a month, said
Dr. Michael Crupain, director of Consumer
Reports Food Safety and Sustainability
Center.Consumer Reports also recommends
children under five limit rice drinks, rice
cakes and ready-to-eat rice cereals.
Levels of arsenic vary. We based our
recommendations on the higher levels in
each food group to offer consumers the best
protection, said Dr. Crupain.As for rice
itself, Consumer Reports lab tests in 2012
found high levels of inorganic arsenic in
white rice and even higher levels in brown
rice. Other types of rice and other grains had
much
lower
levels
of
inorganic
arsenic. Some good choices include sushi
rice from the U.S. and white basmati rice
from California, India and Pakistan. On
average, they had half the amount of arsenic
as most other types of rice.
Brown basmati rice from California, India
and Pakistan had about one-third less
inorganic arsenic than other brown
rice.Other good options are bulgur, barley
and faro, as well as gluten-free grains like
amaranth, buckwheat, millet and quinoa.In
response to the Consumer Reports
investigation, the USA Rice Federation
issued this statement: Research conducted
by the Food and Drug Administration and
U.S. rice industry shows arsenic levels
found in U.S.-grown rice are below safe

Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

maximum levels established this year by the
World Health Organization. Studies show
that including white or brown rice in the diet
provides measureable health benefits that
outweigh the potential risks associated with
exposure to trace levels of arsenic. The U.S.
rice industry is committed to growing a safe
and healthy product; we continuously test
our crop, and research ways of reducing the
already low levels of arsenic found in rice
even further.
The Food & Drug Administration issued this
statement: The FDAs ongoing assessment
of arsenic in rice remains a priority for the
agency. Last year, the FDA released what
we believe to be the largest set of test results
to date on the presence of arsenic in rice and
rice products, and we are planning to release
a draft assessment of the potential health
risks associated with the consumption of
arsenic in these same foods. Until that
review is completed, the agency continues to
recommend that consumers, including
pregnant women, eat a well-balanced diet
containing a variety of grains. Parents
should feed infants and toddlers a variety of
grains as well, and consider options other
than rice cereal for a childs first solid
food.Published studies and ongoing FDA
research indicate that cooking rice in excess
volumes of water, five to six times that of
the rice, and draining the water can reduce
the arsenic content, though it may also
reduce the nutritional value of the rice.

Kolkata, Dec 10 (IANS): Cultivating rice

varieties that accumulate less amount of
arsenic can tackle the challenge of
exposure to the carcinogen that affects the
population in over five Indian states, an
expert said here Wednesday. Though
drinking water contamination is known to
be the prime cause of arsenic exposure,
toxic effects have been observed in
people whose only source of the
carcinogen is rice. (Read: 4 ways your
food could be contaminated before they
reach your plate)
Indias major problem in terms of
environmental mutagens (mutating agent)
is arsenic. Five states have been affected
and more reports are coming in everyday.
Very recently we have proven a link
between rice containing high levels of
arsenic and DNA damage and this
becomes crucial since rice is a staple in
India,
Asian
Association
of
Environmental
Mutagens
Societies
(AAEMS) president Ashok K. Giri told
IANS on the sidelines of the 4th Asian
Conference on Environmental Mutagens
at the Indian Institute of Chemical

source with thanks: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/couldarsenic-in-rice-be-dangerous-for-children1.2135546#ixzz3LdgByVd8

Beware of rice varieties

contaminated with arsenic
Agencies Dec 11, 2014 at 11:18 am

Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

Biology (under the Council of Scientific
and
Industrial
Research)
here.
(Read: Genes play a role in arsenic
poisoning)
Elaborating on the findings, he said rice is
the crop most susceptible to absorbing
arsenic during cultivation. Giri noted that
residents in rural West Bengal who
consumed rice contaminated with more
than 200 microgram/kg of arsenic showed
higher frequencies of DNA damage.
But there should not be any panic
because there are plenty of rice varieties
which accumulate less arsenic so if you
can cultivate those then there shouldnt be
a problem, said Giri, also an emeritus
scientist, Molecular and Human Genetics
Division, of the institute. (Read: Indian
scientists
develop
precise
arsenic
detection tool)
Chronic
arsenic
exposure
through
groundwater contamination affects around
160 million people worldwide and
majority of them reside in southeast Asia,
particularly, Bangladesh, India, China and
Taiwan. In addition, air pollution and
fluoride toxicity are other issues that need
immediate attention, he said.
Photo source: Getty images

Procurement agencies told to

pay VAT on sale of paddy
byproducts
Gurpreet Singh Nibber, Hindustan
Times Chandigarh , December 11, 2014

First Published: 11:07 IST(11/12/2014) |

Last Updated: 11:10 IST(11/12/2014)

The state excise department has served

notices to the district drawing and disbursing
officers of all five grain procurement

agencies in Punjab and the Food

Corporation of India (FCI) to pay valueadded tax (VAT), since 2011-12, on the
amount generated by the sale of byproducts
of paddy by rice shelling mill owners.The
liability of each state procurement agency
Punsup (Punjab State Civil Supplies
Corporation Limited), Pungrain (Punjab
Grains Procurement Corporation Ltd),
Punjab State Warehousing Cor poration (
PSWC ) , Punjab Markfed and Punjab Agro
Industries Corporation Limited (PAIC)
and the FCI, on this count could run into
crores of rupees, as estimates suggest that
every kharif season, rice millers in the state
sell byproducts of paddy rice bran, rice
husk and small broken rice (Kinki)
valued at around ` 800 crore in the open
market.

Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

In case VAT is paid, the agencies also
become liable to pay income tax. In fact, the
income tax department has also served
notices on the agencies.On its part, the state
government and the FCI are in a catch22
situation as the profit earned by rice shelling
mill (which shells rice on the behalf of the
state procurement agencies) owners by
selling the byproducts is part of the milling
charges allowed by the Centre.Since 2003,
the Centre has frozen these milling charges
at Rs. 15 per quintal on the condition that
the profits generated by the rice shelling
mills owners would be retained by them and
this would be considered part of the milling
charges.
The agencies and the FCI have not been able
to decide on whether to pay up or file an
appeal with the department or move
court.Punjab
excise
and
taxation
commissioner Anurag Verma said, The
procurement agencies can take up the issue
with me and their requests will be examined.
The notices were sent to streamline the VAT
collection system. The department will not
collect any unauthorised tax.The state
government is unable to decide on the
matter, as one of its departments (excise and
taxation) has served notices on the
subsidiaries of the other department (food
and civil supplies).The managing directors
of the procurement agencies have sought an
opinion from the food and civil supplies
department, but are yet to receive any
response.

rice to these agencies. This rice is then

handed over to the FCI for distribution,
transport and storage. The excise and
taxation department has argued that since
rice millers work on the behalf of the
procurement agencies, the latter is liable to
pay VAT.
We only take rice from rice shellers. If
VAT is recoverable from us, then income
tax is also chargeable. So far, the
government has been unable to decide on
the matter, said a top officer in the food and
civil supplies department.He added that
before the excise department started using
coercive methods for recovery, the issue had
to be settled.On their part, cash-strapped
procurement agencies claim to have no
money to pay the VAT and the income
tax.They also want to avoid paying up as
once it is paid, the levying of tax would
become standard practice.
Source
with
thanks:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/chan
digarh/procurement-agencies-told-to-payvat-on-sale-of-paddy-byproducts/article11295415.aspx

Customs seizes P200M

imported glutinous rice
By Jigger J. Jerusalem

WHAT IS THE PROCESS?

Friday, December 12, 2014

After procuring paddy from farmers, the

state procurement agencies hand it to rice
shellers, who after shelling the paddy return

AROUND a hundred container vans filled

with thousands of bags of imported
glutinous rice (pilit) were seized by the

Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847

Daily Global Rice E-Newsletter by Riceplus Magazine

Bureau of Customs (BOC)-Northern
Mindanao at the Mindanao Container
Terminal subport in Tagoloan, Misamis
Oriental.Lawyer Roswald Joseph Pague,
BOC-Northern Mindanao administrative
officer, said the imported items from
Vietnam were seized by the Customs
through the alert order issued by Jessie
Dellosa, the deputy commissioner for the
intelligence group.Pague said of the
Customs opened some 60 container vans on
Thursday, December 11, while the rest will
be subjected for verification. Each container
van contains more or less 520 bags of rice.
The worth of the imported goods is
estimated at P100 million to P200 million,
he said.The BOC-Northern Mindanao
decided to take custody of the vans when it
found out that the consignees failed to file
import entry at the Customs office.Upon
reaching the port, he said the consignee must
file an import entry within 30 days or the
imported items will be declared by the BOC
as abandoned.This non-filing of appropriate
import documents is unlawful under section
1801 (Abandonment of Imported Articles)
of the Tariff and Customs Code of the
Philippines.BOC-Northern
Mindanao
records showed the consignees were
identified as EC Peninsula and New Dawn,
Pague said.
However, he added, the consignees filed
their respective affidavits of disclaimer,
essentially denying that they are the
importers of the seized goods.Pague said the
suspected smugglers of the imported rice,
once they are identified, would be facing
charges of violation of tariff and customs
code, and National Food Authority (NFA)

regulation, which requires consignees to

secure import permit before the items could
be cleared by the BOC.He added once
verification of the confiscated bags of rice is
done, the Customs would auction these off
as soon as possible.

The confiscation of the imported goods,

Pague said, is an indication the BOCNorthern Mindanao is doing its job in going
after smugglers of varied form.We are
sending a very strong message to those who
want to engage in smuggling in our ports.
The Bureau of Customs will not tolerate this
illegal act. Individuals or companies which
will try to conduct smuggling activities will
be caught and we will enforce the full extent
of the law to make sure they will face the
consequences of their actions, Pague told
Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro in a phone
interview Thursday.
Source
with
thanks:http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayande-oro/local-news/2014/12/12/customsseizes-p200m-imported-glutinous-rice381566

For Advertisement & Specs

Contact: Mujahid Ali
mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com

+92 321 369 2874

Contact us for Advertisement & Specs: mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com +92 321 369 2847