Purchasing Enters Final Stage, Late-Season Mid-to-Late Indica Rice Fluctuates Narrowly

Currently, mid-to-late indica rice purchasing in the main producing areas has entered its final stage. Supported by the minimum purchase price policy, mid-to-late indica rice purchase prices in the main producing areas remain relatively firm. Policy-based purchasing entities maintain purchase prices at 1.38 yuan/jin, while other purchasing entities offer slightly lower prices. As rice market sales are relatively weak, mid-to-late indica rice prices lack upward momentum in the later period, and short-term prices are expected to fluctuate within a small range.

According to statistics, as of December 15, various grain enterprises in 13 main mid-to-late indica rice producing areas including Hubei and Anhui had cumulatively purchased 21.66 million tons of newly produced mid-to-late indica rice, a decrease of 2.39 million tons from the same period last year, down 9.94% year on year. Since the beginning of December, the mid-to-late rice purchasing pace has been gradually slowing. Statistics show that the 5-day purchase volume from December 10-15 was only 900,000 tons, far below the peak level of 3-4 million tons.

According to statistics, as of December 15, various grain enterprises in 7 main japonica rice producing areas including Heilongjiang and Jilin had cumulatively purchased 26.31 million tons of newly produced japonica rice, an increase of 8.07 million tons from the same period last year, up 44.24% year on year. This year's japonica rice purchasing pace has consistently been fast, but recently, affected by snowfall in Northeast China, the purchasing pace has slowed compared with the earlier period.

On December 23, the southern policy-based rice auction will continue. The market volume offered this time remains about 500,000 tons of early indica rice produced in 2013. As the market's current focus is on mid-to-late rice, the transaction ratio is expected to remain sluggish. According to statistics, up to now, the total transaction volume of early indica rice produced in 2013 is only 118,900 tons, accounting for 2.07% of the minimum purchase price purchase volume.