Asian rice exports to West Africa blocked or cause food crisis

Foreign media said that the Ebola epidemic endangered Asian rice exports to West Africa, because shipping personnel to avoid it, so that Asian rice exporters face high freight costs and shipping companies refused to ship the problem, but also let the Ebola epidemic area in West Africa countries to worsen the food crisis.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal on October 30, 2014, since the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic, thousands of people in major affected areas in West Africa have been forced to isolate, not only causing local farming to be abandoned, but even school nutritious lunches have been stopped due to food shortages.

Shenggen Fan, director-general of the International Food Policy Research Center, said that because international shipping companies have refused to ship to the Ebola-affected area, the price of rice in West Africa has increased by nearly 1/3 since the outbreak. He said: "Assuming the situation continues to deteriorate, I am afraid that more people in the area are malnourished."

thailand rice exporters Riceland International director Vichai (Vichai Sriprasert) said: "mainly the captain and crew do not want to leave the ship, they are afraid of arriving in Hong Kong after contact with the local unloading personnel infected with Ebola."

the crew members who arrived in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, had to wear masks and gloves before allowing local staff to board the ship to unload rice. Although APM Terminals, the port operator in Monrovia, reduced the port handling fee by US $1 per ton, it still could not make up for the soaring price of rice because the shipping company increased the freight rate significantly. George Nehme, a local rice importer, said: "We don't care about the price increase because there is no rice imported at all." He said that none of the Asian rice export vessels in December were willing to ship to Liberia. In order to resolve the domestic food crisis, Liberia had to switch to land transportation of rice from Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria, but the freight was equally expensive. The chairman of a Singapore rice trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: "The shipping pipeline is quite limited because some shipping companies have heard of the outbreak and prefer to ship to South America or the United States." Even if shipping companies are willing to ship to Africa, the freight rates are quite staggering. Take the rice exported by Thai ship to Nigeria as an example. In the past, the average freight rate was 65 to 70 US dollars per ton, but now the price per ton has increased by 10 to 15 US dollars.

Date: 2015-03-06 Source: China Grain Network

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