Govt ‘prohibts’ export of non-basmati white rice with immediate effect

Explaining the reasons behind the move, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said, “In order to ensure adequate availability of non-basmati white rice in the Indian market and to allay the rise in prices in the domestic market, Government of India has amended the Export Policy of the above variety from ‘Free with export duty of 20%’ to ‘Prohibited’ with immediate effect.”

“Domestic prices of rice are on an increasing trend. Retail prices have increased by 11.5% over a year and 3% over the past month,” the Ministry said in a statement.

The statement said, “Export duty of 20% on non-basmati white rice was imposed on 8.09.2022 to lower the price as well as ensure availability in the domestic market.”

“However, the export of this variety increased from 33.66 LMT (Sept-March 2021-22) to 42.12 LMT (Sept-March 2022-23) even after imposition of 20% export duty,” it said.

As per the statement, “In the current FY 2023-24 (April-June), about 15.54 LMT of this variety of rice was exported against only 11.55 LMT during FY 2022-23 (April-June), i.e. an increase by 35%. This sharp increase in exports can be ascribed to high international prices due to geo-political scenario, El Nino sentiments and extreme climatic conditions in other rice producing countries, etc.”

“Non-basmati white rice constitutes about 25% of the total rice exported from the country. The prohibition on export of non-basmati white rice will lead to lowering of prices for the consumers in the country,” it said.

“However, there is no change in the export policy of non-basmati rice (par boiled rice) and basmati rice, which forms the bulk of rice exports. This will ensure that farmers continue to get the benefit of remunerative prices in the international market,” it added.

The Centre’s move to ban the export of non-basmati white rice comes a month after it disallowed state governments including Karnataka from buying rice from the FCI under its Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS). Karnataka had demanded 2.2 lakh metric tonnes of rice for its scheme to distribute, free of cost, 5 kg rice in a month to each beneficiary of the National Food Security Act, 2013 in the state.