Ecuador is in a dilemma whether to import or not to import rice, considering the price increases that this highly consumed product has experienced globally and which here is one of the cheapest in the world, but not in the region.

The government has announced the import of 30,000 tonnes to curb the price of a quintal, which has risen from $32 to $52 a quintal on the retail market in recent weeks – pushing the pound to 70 cents – but producers oppose this and have filed for protection, saying there is rice, planted and it has yet to be harvested, and that the problem is speculation in the mills. “They are asking for no rice imports, that is acceptable as long as there is rice. But if the producers can’t cover the hole we have, we have to import it. I have both shirts, the producer’s, but I also owe it to the citizens so that they don’t have to pay for expensive rice,” said Guayas Governor Francesco Tabacchi at a meeting they held last Thursday.

With the first import of 30,000 tons of rice from Colombia, the government expects a quintal to sell for $46 in Ecuador

And it is true that Ecuadorian rice is among the cheapest in general, but among the countries of the region it is not among the most economical. From highest to lowest, Ecuador ranks 60th out of 81 with a value per kilogram of $1.40 (as an average), according to Global ProductPrices.com’s May report. In this analysis, which includes 81 countries of the world and takes long-grain white rice as a reference, the cheapest would be in Paraguay, $0.65, and the most expensive in Serbia, $4.74.

The reference prices of the portal, at least with those from Ecuador, are supported, because according to supermarket values ​​they are between 1.24 and 1.82 dollars per kilogram, which is equivalent to 2.2 pounds, since it depends on the brand and type of grain.

The support price for rice is only applied between producers and piladoras, now some get up to $53 per bag compared to the official $32.50

The president of the National Corporation of Rice Producers Organizations (Corpnoarroz), Javier Ronquillo, indicates that in popular markets the pound was $0.40, while in supermarkets it was more than $0.58 or $0.60, but that “before it goes up “.

Product price data has a cut-off date of Friday, June 23 at 4:40 p.m. and includes countries from which Ecuador would import grass, according to what was published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock to protect the country’s sovereignty. countries, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay.

Of those four countries, Uruguay ranks sixth from highest to lowest, at $3.39, followed by the United States ($3.80); Japan ($4.10); Hungary ($4.12) and Russia ($4.48).

On the other hand, the price of a kilogram of rice from Brazil, Colombia and Argentina is even cheaper than that from Ecuador.

Rice industrialists assure that the high prices “come from the same field” and confirm that their stocks are practically at zero

So, for example, from the list of 81 countries ranging from the highest to the lowest, Brazil is in 66th place with a value of 1.23 dollars per kilogram of rice; Colombia is at 74 and the price is $0.91; and Argentina in 75th place with $0.89.

According to the portal, in order to present the value of rice, they identified the leading brand of rice in each country and collected prices from the largest food stores.

These are the South American countries that appear in the report, with Ecuador in fourth place:

In his reading of the data in the report, Ronquillo comments that Ecuador has a dollarized economy and that this has always made production costs a bit higher than in other countries. “The distribution chain is always longer in Ecuador, in other countries the pilador sends a hanger,” he explains.

Less supply of rice and price fluctuations are beginning to be noticed on supermarket shelves

The announced rice imports would be made again after 25 years, said the President of the Corporation of Rice Industrialists of Ecuador (Corpcom) Juan Pablo Zúñiga. “The last time rice had to be imported was during the previous El Niño phenomenon, 1997-1998.”

According to the entrepreneur, approximately more than 200,000 tons of paddy rice were imported at that time, with 90% of that cargo coming from the United States and the other 10% from other origins, among which “some came from Guyana, and probably some came from Peru.”