ECのコメ政策 : その現状と市場価格

Abstract

Rice policies in the EC have been quite different from the rest of the world. With the heavy subsidies, domestic production has been increased while exports of certain surplus kinds of rice also encouraged by subsidies. During the recent years, however, the rice policies have been modified : production subsidies and government support prices becoming more selective with a preference for more demanded kind of rice such as Long Grain B and government prices based on the EC currency, ECU, being cut down. Ironically, domestic government support prices in Italy and Spain, for example, have been increased during the recent years due to the fact that their exchange rates of their currencies have been depreciated. Meanwhile, domestic consumer prices of rice are quite expensive relative to the world prices. Considering from this situation, rice production in the EC will be more selective in quality but still increased in the volume in the future, while a decrease in production costs should be required to the producers.