Indian rice export set to decline sharply in 1999-2000

India, aided by a bumper crop and increased global demand had exported 44 lakh tonnes of rice during 1998-99 as against 17 lakh tonnes the previous year.

Export registration with the Agriculture Products and Export Development Authority (Apeda) during the current fiscal has been little over three lakh tonnes.

While a total of 2.77 lakh tonnes of non-basmati has been registered with Apeda, the basmati registration has been only 46,000 tonnes, sources said.

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (Fao) has said Indian rice export would come down to 21 lakh tonnes in 1999 from 40 lakh tonnes the previous year.

With the global rice trade depending on various environmental factors, Fao predicted a 20 per cent decline in trade to 21.5 million tonnes during 1999.

India’s export prospects would also be affected by the declining import requirements of Indonesia, which was the largest importer of rice during the last year, sources said.

According to Fao, Philippines and Brazil are also likely to scale down their import requirements as both the nations are set for a better crop overcoming the effects of El Nino, that had hit crop during the last couple of years.

Thailand, Pakistan and China are expected to undercut India in the international market in terms of price and quality, sources said.

Fao has also projected Vietnam and Pakistan as two major rice sellers in 1999 with Islamabad’s exports rising to 2.3 million tonnes from 1.9 million and Vietnam’s shipment marginally going up to 3.9 million tonnes from 3.8 million tonnes last year.

Meanwhile, the agriculture ministry has estimated the rabi (summer) rice crop to be a record 12.28 million tonnes.

According to the National Crop Forecasting Centre’s estimate for April, in spite of extreme heat wave and dry spell, rice prospects are bright as there is a four per cent increase in area under cultivation in West Bengal.

West Bengal which has a total area of 12.68 lakh hectares under cultivation is expected to produce about 40 lakh tonnes with an average yield of 3,200 kg per hectare.

India’s rice production during 1998-99 is estimated to be around 94.48 million tonnes including the kharif crop of 72.20 million tonnes.