Phoenix looks to India to feed Africa as part of rice expansion.

Food and resources company Phoenix Commodities Ltd will buy more rice from India as it expands its business in Africa to meet increasing demand. The company wants to boost its rice trading volumes to between 2 million metric tons and 2.2 million metric tons over the next three to four years, chairman Gaurav Dhawan said in a phone interview. That compares with 1.5 million tons this year. The company says it is already one of the top three rice traders globally. Increasing incomes and changing food habits in Africa have created an opportunity for the company to increase sales of its flagship Happy Family brand rice, Dhawan said. Much of the planned increase in Phoenix’s supply will come from India, the world’s biggest exporter, he said. It will be supplemented by rice from Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam.