Where Does Singapore Import Rice From?

There are lots of Singaporean businesses that pay attention to import of rice such as Jasmine rice, Vietnamese rice and more. Actually, on top of the countries where Singapore imports rice from is Vietnam.

The volume of rice that is usually imported by Singapore from Vietnam has increased four times from the year of 2008 to 2013. The rice from Vietnam accounts for twenty-eight percent of the important market share of Singapore.

In the past few years, Vietnamese rice has really been competitive. The quality has also improved immensely due to the application of modern technology. It is also clearly emphasized that Singapore has become a potential or targeted market for Vietnamese rice due to the rice varieties that meet the standards of Singapore.

With the growth of Indian community and India’s rice export, Singapore started considered importing more quality rice from India. Importing from India is also cost effective because of the locations of two countries.

Moreover, Singapore is also a commercial hub of ASEAN. It also remarkably served as an entryway for Vietnam rice to enter the Philippines, Indonesia and African markets. Singapore truly became the leading trade country of Vietnam. Its bilateral trade increased by 8.4 billion dollars in 2016. The 2.7 billion dollar somehow came from the exports of Vietnam all the way to Singapore.

As per the bilateral trade of the countries, it increased by 21.2 percent to 3.3 billion dollars. The main produce include the rice and seafood, and pepper. In addition to Vietnam, India and Thailand are other leading suppliers of rice of Singapore.

Singapore import rice from Thailand and India. In fact, India has already surpassed Thailand as the biggest rice supplier to Singapore. This was somehow unbelievable but this is indeed true. Thailand has actually become the premier source of staple rice ever since 1998. This accounted for ½ of the total supply between the years of 1998 and 2011. And just last year, it fell to almost 35.3 %.

In the figures presented by the promotion arm of the government trade, India was by far the leading rice supplier from the month of January to the month of August. The rice imported accounted to almost 92,865 tons or equal to 32.9% of the total.  

The supplies from Myanmar and Vietnam (as mentioned) including those from India have grown ever since 2004. Such a sudden shift has started when there had been an increase in the global rice price.

Dating back in the past, Thailand also led to a shortage of supply of rice. Other nations that produce rice curbed their exports to balance the domestic and international supply of rice.

In addition to that, Singaporeans eat less rice. They also eat more dishes and are less picky about their rice. The increase of the number of foreigners with distinct preferences and standards also fuel the demand for non-Thai rice.

Somehow, the restaurants and stalls in Singapore began buying rice from India. Eateries also switched to cheaper and inexpensive rice sources in order to cope up with the increasing costs.  In the supermarkets in Singapore, they also had noticed such a significant change!

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