Saleh, whose firm imports about 22 percent of the kingdom's 600,000 metric tonnes of rice per year, said Indian and Pakistani Basmati rice now accounts for 70 percent of Saudi Arabia's total rice imports. Saleh said imports of U.S. long-grain parboiled rice to Saudi Arabia stood at 120,000 metric tonnes in 2000. Traders in Bombay have said that India's aromatic Basmati rice exports were expected to decline this year because its main buyer, Saudi Arabia, had sufficient stocks.
Population growth is faster than supplies.
Delegates to the conference said the growing number of Asian immigrants was boosting consumption of fragrant rice worldwide. Copyright 2000, Reuters News Service. U.S. indexes are real-time. Forbes 40 Index powered by Telemet . News may include latest headlines from Reuters.