Pasta prices, especially for bulk pasta produced by smaller producers, have been very low, due to excess supply. Large potato supplies are also competing with rice this year. With limited rice producing areas, rice production is not likely to increase significantly and Turkey is expected to remain a significant rice importer. Egypt, Italy, China and the United States supplied the bulk of the milled rice and the United States and Australia supplied the majority of the paddy. U.S. farmers in Missouri have also begun to grow baldo rice for the Turkish market.
Quality remains an important issue in choosing suppliers.
In addition, other traders brought rice from Syria through border trade and barter. However, the competition has become stiffer in the Turkish market, with more players now able to compete on the basis of quality and price. There are seven traders that handle most of the Turkish rice imports. Under the 2000 Import Regime, import duties stand at 35 percent for milled rice and 27 percent for paddy. The government of Turkey has established a TRQ for the EU of 28,000 tons of rice at a zero duty for MY 2000.