Platts proposes to amend daily Uruguayan white and parboiled rice assessments

S&P Global Platts is proposing to remove the varietal name from its Uruguayan 5% broken white rice and Parboiled 5% STX assessments from Feb. 1, 2021, due to a significant decline in production and trade of the El Paso variety.

Platts understands that farmers in Uruguay are increasingly favoring the Merin variety over El Paso due to the former's better resistance to disease and higher field yields, and that 60% of the upcoming crop has been planted with Merin.

While Uruguayan exporters do not typically sell a mixture of varieties, Platts understands that a specific variety is not included in contracts for white or parboiled rice as the standard quality varieties command similar prices.

However, a variety will be specified if the buyer wants a premium quality variety, such as Olimar or Tacuari.

As a result, Platts will keep the name of its weekly Uruguayan assessment, Uruguayan Olimar 5% broken white rice, unchanged.

Bids, offers and trades for specific varieties may be taken into consideration and normalized to meet the Platts standard.

The proposed amendment will affect the following:

Assessment name: Code

Uruguayan 5% broken white rice: LRJABOO

Uruguayan Parboiled 5% STX: LRJCBOO

These assessments are currently published on the Platts Agricultural Alert page PAA0601, in the Platts Rice Daily report and in the Platts South America Rice Weekly report.

The assessments are also published in the Platts Global Rice and Global Rice Volatility Weekly reports as well the Platts price database under the codes above.

Please send all feedback, comments or questions to europe_ags@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com by Dec. 17.

For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing.

Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available to the public upon request