Rice from India and Pakistan, delivered across Africa and Asia.
Broken white rice in 5%, 10%, 25% and 100% broken grades. Wheat and maize traded alongside, into the same markets.
Rice is the larger part of this desk.
We source broken white rice from India and Pakistan and deliver into food-security programmes, importers and distributors across Africa and Asia. Wheat and maize, sourced separately, are traded alongside rice into the same destination markets.
The staple that feeds more people than any other crop.
Rice feeds more people than any other crop. It was domesticated in the Yangtze valley some nine thousand years ago and spread across Asia, into the Middle East, Africa and eventually the Americas, adapting into thousands of local varieties along the way.
Indica varieties — long, slender grains that cook dry and separate — are grown across tropical and subtropical Asia and account for most internationally traded rice. Asia grows and eats the overwhelming majority of the world's rice, and Africa is the largest importing region, with demand continuing to rise as populations grow and diets shift toward rice from traditional staples.
From the paddy field to the grade on the ticket.
Paddy and Husking
Rice leaves the field as paddy — the whole grain still enclosed in its protective husk. Paddy is dried to a stable moisture content before storage or milling; drying it correctly is one of the main determinants of final milling quality. Removing the husk produces brown rice, with the bran layer still intact.
Milling and Polishing
Removing the bran layer produces white rice. Milling inevitably fractures some grains during this process, which is where grading by brokens begins.
Grading by Brokens
Rice is graded by the proportion of broken kernels it contains — 5%, 10%, 25% and upward to 100% broken. This is a specification, not a defect. Whole-grain rice commands a premium for table use, while higher-broken rice is a distinct product in its own right, valued as an affordable staple and in food processing.
Very little of the world's rice crosses a border.
Only around one tenth of world rice production is traded internationally, against roughly a quarter of wheat. Most rice is consumed in the country that grew it, so the exportable surplus is small relative to the crop and concentrated in a handful of origins. Prices can respond sharply to events that would barely move a deeper market — an export restriction, a poor monsoon, a change in a government procurement programme. Relationships at origin matter more in rice than in almost any other agricultural commodity.
A concentrated market, into a wide range of destinations.
India, Thailand and Vietnam are the principal global exporters of rice, followed by Pakistan, the United States and Myanmar. Africa is the largest importing region, taking substantial volumes of broken and white grades; Asian importers buy according to domestic harvest and government stock policy, which makes their demand episodic.
Our own book is concentrated at the India and Pakistan end of that market: broken white rice, sourced and documented to the requirements of the destination, delivered principally into food-security and commercial demand across Africa and Asia.
Rice is also the most politically managed of the major grains. Producing governments intervene through minimum support prices, public stockholding and export restrictions; importing governments through tenders, tariffs and reserve programmes.
How we trade rice.
Products, origins, grading and delivery terms for our rice trading activity.
Rice — Key Facts
Around one tenth — The share of world rice production that is traded internationally, against roughly a quarter of wheat.
c. 7000 BC — Approximately when rice was first domesticated, in the Yangtze valley.
Rice does not price against a liquid futures benchmark. Origin FOB assessments, export-policy decisions in the principal producing countries, and freight set the level. Our desk tracks all three and prices accordingly. Wheat and maize, by contrast, are referenced to international futures.
Traded alongside rice, into the same markets.
Wheat and maize trade differently to rice — both are deep, liquid markets priced against international futures, with a much higher share of production crossing borders. We trade both into the same African and Asian destinations we serve with rice, principally for milling, feed and food-security procurement.
Wheat
Milling wheat and feed wheat from Latin American and Black Sea origins. Supplied to government reserves, millers, and commercial buyers. The most significant staple grain in our food-security markets.
Maize
Yellow maize (corn) for food processing and feed applications. Sourced from Latin American producing regions. Supplied to processors and institutional buyers across Africa and Asia.
How we trade grains.
Products, specifications, delivery terms, and counterparty requirements for our grain trading activity.
Africa and Asia.
Rice, wheat and maize move into food-security and commercial demand across the same core destination markets.
Discussing a rice or grains requirement?
Give us the grade, volume, packing format and destination. Our desk will respond with an initial indication.
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