Home » After 3 years, no more “shield”: Piedmontese rice defenseless in the face of Asian grains

After 3 years, no more “shield”: Piedmontese rice defenseless in the face of Asian grains

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After three years of respite, the nightmare of duty-free imports of grains from Cambodia and Myanmar returns to the world of Italian and European rice. Two days ago the safeguard clause that had been obtained and applied in 2019 after grueling international struggles, which had involved institutions, trade associations and entrepreneurs, expired. The clause has imposed, in these three years, the payment of a tax for Indica rice imported into Europe from the two countries of Southeast Asia. The decision was based on a dossier that demonstrated the negative impact of massive and uncontrolled imports from the two Asian states to the detriment of thousands of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese farms. In Piedmont alone, the first rice growing region in Europe, there are about 1,900 companies, which produce an average of 8 million quintals of cereal on about 117,000 hectares of rice fields.

As a result of the expiry of the clause, rice will be able to enter our continent again without any tax. Yet the positive effects with the restored duty were seen: according to the Market Evolution Report presented by Ente Risi to the Ministry of Agriculture in December, imports of processed basic rice from Cambodia increased from 182,469 tons in the 2019 campaign. 20 to 115,762 of the 2020-21 campaign, while those from Myanmar from 193,398 to 106,783 tons. As a percentage, imports from Cambodia fell by 37%, while those from Myanmar by 45%. The drops, specify by Ente Risi in the report, “are due to the safeguard clause on milled rice of the indica type, to the increase in container freight costs, and to the sanctions that the European Union has assigned to the leading exponents of the military government of Myanmar and government companies ”.

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However, there is an exponential increase in imports of Japonica from Myanmar which are not subject to the payment of the duty. «In three years – explains the president of Ente Risi, Paolo Carrà – the duties have undoubtedly brought advantages: they confirm the abatement of rice imports from Cambodia. This, coupled with the pandemic that increased rice consumption, caused the market to recover. The Indica now travels around 40 euros per quintal, while in the midst of zero-duty imports it went around 25 euros per quintal. The figures speak for themselves, there has been a strong reduction. Now we will go back to previous levels ».

Is Cambodia Preparing for Invasion Again? According to some local news sites, and reported by Ente Risi, the president of the Cambodia Rice Federation, Song Saran, allegedly declared “that in recent weeks he has encountered a greater demand for rice from EU countries following the imminent non-application of the safeguard clause on Indica of Cambodian and Burmese origin ‘. At the European level we are preparing for a new battle: «The road is uphill – specifies Carrà -. The Mipaaf and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are working on the dossier, and we are also trying to make an agreement with Spain, Portugal and Greece, pushing the European Commission so that there is a safeguard clause that is triggered automatically, without resorting to the procedure of the request for activation”.

The reactions

«On the part of the rice production world, the expiry of the safeguard clause represents a problem: today, thanks to the duties on rice imported from Cambodia and Myanmar, we are able to obtain interesting internal prices. But on Indica-type rice, which is subject to these taxes ». This is how the president of Confagricoltura Vercelli and Biella, Benedetto Coppo, speaks about the abolition of duties for Cambodian and Burmese rice after three years of clause. «By removing the duties – adds the number one of the Farmers’ Association – today’s prices will become a mirage tomorrow: and the interlocutors could turn elsewhere for the purchase of rice. The danger is that we will find a troubled market for these varieties. I trust in the protection action carried out so far by the Risi National Authority, which has a battle in mind to reintroduce the clause. Not only for the Indica, but also for the Japonica ».

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Paolo Dellarole, president of Coldiretti Vercelli and Biella, confirms the line of Ente Risi that would like the automatic reactivation of the import clause, without requiring it. «We must ensure – he adds – that this measure to protect internal markets is triggered automatically. There is concern about the expiry of duties and the return of a product that is not protected from the point of view of health and respect for human rights. Three years ago each one had moved in the ways and places that he had deemed appropriate for the restoration of the clause: it was a struggle carried out all together “. The president of the AIIR, Association of Italian rice industries, Mario Francese, comments as follows: “The industry believes that the cessation of the effects of the safeguard clause, in light of the facts known to date, will not distort the market situation” . While Giuseppe Ferraris, president of the Copa-Cogeca rice group in Brussels, highlights on agromagazine.it that «with Ente Risi we are fighting so that the results achieved are not undermined. The automatism would protect the Italian sector from the massive arrival of rice under exemption from duties ».

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