AreaChina (Mainland)

Commodity GroupRice

CommodityAll

Date29/12/2014

Policy CategoryTrade

Policy InstrumentImport quota, import licenses

DescriptionBased on unconfirmed media reports, overhauled its import quota allocation system. The measures would namely entail tying the issuance of private sector import quotas to the purchase of supplies from public reserves via special auctions and at levels exceeding the prevailing government procurement prices. Import licenses would be issued in direct proportion to purchases from state granaries, except for traders located in seven deficit provinces, which would receive an additional 20 percent. In this connection, auctions held between 6 and 8 of February 2015 sold 1.4 million tonnes of Indica supplies from state reserves, further to some 133 000 tonnes of Japonica varieties. This is out of a total of 8 million tonnes of rice offered in said auctions.