rice price hike: The government has decided not to allow export of basmati rice below $1,200 per tonne to prevent possible ‘illegal’ export of white non-basmati rice in the guise of premium basmati rice. The commerce ministry said in a statement on Sunday that it has directed trade promotion body Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) not to register contracts below $1,200 per tonne. Contracts below the current $1,200 a tonne have been kept in abeyance. For the future, a committee will be constituted under the chairmanship of APEDA.
Usna rice imposed 20 percent export duty
In an effort to control the retail prices of rice, the central government is taking several steps to boost domestic supplies. In September last year, it banned the export of broken rice, while last month it banned non-basmati white rice. Last week, an export duty of 20 per cent was imposed on non-basmati rice. With these restrictions, India has now banned all varieties of non-basmati rice as well. According to the commerce ministry statement, the government has issued directions to APEDA to introduce additional safeguards to prevent possible illegal export of white non-basmati rice in the guise of basmati rice. As per the instructions, only contracts for basmati export valued at $1,200 per tonne and above should be registered for issue of Registration-cum-Allotment Certificate (RCAC). As per Foreign Trade Policy, APEDA is mandated to register all contracts for export of Basmati rice and then it issues RCAC for export of Basmati rice.
India exports rice worth $4.8 billion
Rice exports have a major share in India’s total exports. If we estimate according to the prices, then in the year 2022-23, the total export of basmati rice of the country was 4.8 billion US dollars. Talking about the last financial year, the export of non-basmati last year was 6.36 billion US dollars. At the same time, India’s rice production is estimated to increase to 135.54 million tonnes in the year 2022-23, which was 129.47 million tonnes in the previous year.
India accounts for 67 percent of parboiled rice exports in the world
According to the Trade Promotion Council of India, in the year 2022-23, non-basmati white rice and white rice banned by the Government of India accounted for 46 percent of India’s total rice exports. If we talk about the export market of rice, then in 2022-23, India exported the maximum in the top 10 markets only. India’s parboiled rice exports accounted for 67 percent of the world’s top 10 markets. In which India exported 47 percent of rice to Benin (12 percent), Bangladesh (9 percent), Guinea (9 percent), Cote de Ivory (9 percent) and Togo (8 percent). The share of exports to Somalia, Liberia, Djibouti, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka was 20 percent. In the year 2022-23, 59 percent of the banned non-basmati white rice was exported to the top 10 markets alone. Its top five export markets were Benin (8 percent), Kenya (8 percent), Madagascar (8 percent), Cameroon (6 percent) and Cote d’Ivoire (6 percent). The remaining 23 percent was exported to the markets of Mozambique, UAE, Vietnam, Angola and Nepal.
India is among the top 10 rice producing countries in the world
Globally, rice is the second largest producer after sugarcane and maize. Rice is the staple food of more than half of the world’s population, with Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and South America being the largest consumers of rice. According to the World Population Review and World Economic Forum, only 10 countries produce more than 80 percent of the world’s rice and all these rice producing countries are located in Asia. Rice is produced in many countries of the world, but China and India are the two top rice producing countries in the world and together they produce more than half of the total global rice. According to an estimate, by the end of 2022, the world production of rice is about 515 million tonnes, which shows an increase of 0.23 percent in global production. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA.gov), a record rice production of 520.5 million tonnes is estimated in 2023-2024. India remained the world’s largest rice exporting country. If we talk about imports, the sub-Saharan Africa region imports the most rice in the world.
Year wise export of different types of rice
(in million dollars)
Item 2022-23 2021-22 Year-on-year growth (in percentage)
Basmati Rice 4,787.50 3,537.49 35.34
Usna Rice 2,994.20 2,764.69 8.3
Non-Basmati 2,203.52 2,000.39 10.15
white rice
Kinki (broken rice) 983.47 1,132.94 -13.19
Brown Rice 9.01 23.25 -61.24
Source: APEDA-DGCIS
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