El Niño has started to cause some concerns in Asia, and it’s a strained rice market that’s facing the first test from the weather phenomenon.
The cyclical climatic phenomenon can parch crops, strain power grids, impact fishing and cut off access to mines due to flooding across regions in Asia and Africa to South America. The rice market has seen weeks of turmoil after India ramped up restrictions on its shipments in late July. The move has worried governments from Asia to Africa, led to a flurry of supply deals and diplomacy, prompted warnings about hoarding, and fueled inflation in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Vietnam, the third-biggest rice exporter, asked growers in a section of the Mekong Delta that accounts for 26% of the region’s winter-spring crop to start planting from early this month, rather than November. The directive was given to avoid water shortages at the end of the harvest, in part due to El Niño.