And then maybe Ayushi can definitely add on to it.

it.Uh, so, uh, Asim, while we look at the effects of El Niño, uh, and how market, uh, participants are positioning themselves around this, it is also crucial to understand that this particular, uh, threat has intensified at a time when trade was already much disrupted, um, uh, since the beginning of the year twenty twenty-six because of the Middle East disruptions and the Hormuz trade disruptions, which caused a lot of, you know, disruptions to global trade worldwide, and rice was affected as a part of it.

So buyers already had a very cautious stance with respect to purchasing rice across, um, various origins.

Other than that, this was one aspect of buying, uh, sentiment, and the other was that prices were also reaching, as Muskan mentioned, FOB prices have reached highs in some origins.

They have reached, uh, monthly highs, and that is again, because of these disruptions, where the local costs led to a pushing up of FOB prices, making it less, you know, desirable for buyers to buy at the current, uh, position.

With that, added the effect of the El Niño disruptions, the demand has stayed in a wait-and-see approach from most of the buyers, including West Africa, may it be China, uh, because these are very price-sensitive buyers.

Apart from West Africa, I would also like to note Middle East demand has been very muted.

Could India's large stock position and competitive pricing help stabilize global rice trade?