MEXICO CITY, MEXICO — USA Rice Federation said on Aug. 8 that it has learned from trade sources in Mexico that the government has decided to maintain the ban on rice imports from Pakistan due to the presence of the Khapra beetle.  

As previously reported in the USA Rice Daily on June 26, the official ban went into effect in June; since then all shipments from Pakistan have been denied entry. Over the past few weeks, rice from Vietnam has also been rejected, although no official ban has been published. Trade sources expect such a ban to follow, or at least create greater risk for sourcing rice from Asia. Sources in Mexico believe that these developments have opened the door for even larger imports from the U.S. of both rough and milled rice.  
 
As of June, the U.S. has exported over 388,000 tonnes of rough rice to Mexico, 16% higher compared with January through June 2012.  U.S. milled rice exports to Mexico are down 20% during the same time period, with Mexico importing 980 tonnes of Vietnamese milled rice, nearly 18,000 tonnes of Pakistan milled rice and over 35,000 tonnes of U.S. milled rice.