Why is brown rice more expensive than normal white rice?

I found a pretty good answer on health hub SG as well, which is what many others has shared.

You may ask, why is brown rice more expensive when it requires less processing? This difference in the cost of the rice can be due to several reasons:

1. Due to the higher demand for white rice, it is produced at a larger economic scale compared to brown rice. This makes brown rice seemed as a premium product and hence making it more costly.
2. Brown rice, due to its small amount of oil in the bran layer, has a shorter shelf life compared to white rice. This makes brown rice more costly as more resources are needed to preserve the quality of brown rice during transportation and storage.

However, if there is increased demand for brown rice, it is anticipated that the price of brown rice will fall.

Interesting question.
It all boils down to the machines rice processing plants have. There is more consumption of white rice (economies of scale), therefore, rice factories have only white rice machines. To produce brown rice -
1) you need extra effort in marketing this product
2) you need extra sorting machinery
3) you need special delicate machinery as the brown husk easily comes off in a standard processor.
Thus, a higher price. There are different grades of white rice too. The lower quality ones are not white when fully polished.
Brown rice while having lower GI is harder to digest, so if your stomach can't take it, better don't. That's why white rice is popular.
Also in Singapore, we store our rice for 2 years before you see it in our stores. You should go to Indonesia, where it is a closed rice market and experience a new supply of freshly cooked rice, where it has been stored for less than a month. Very different I promise you, their best quality is probably 10x better than any rice in Singapore. This is my personal experience having tried to import rice before.