Exporters said India’s rice exports may fall by 4-5 million tonnes (MT) this financial year due to the ban on broken rice as well as export duty on non-basmati rice.
India, which commands a 40% share in the global rice trade, exported 21.23 MT of rice in 2021-22 against 17.78 MT in the previous year. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, exports stood at 9.51 MT in FY 2019-20.
During the April-August period of the current fiscal, government data shows that the country had already exported 9.35 MT, as against 8.36 MT in the year-ago period.
Vijay Setia, former president of the All India Rice Exporters’ Association (AIREA), told PTI, “Due to the ban on broken rice and 20 per cent export duty, exports may fall to 16-17 metric tonnes this fiscal.
He said the country is exporting non-basmati rice at $380-400 per tonne, which is lower than the rate of shipments from other countries.
Mr Setia said price realization after these decisions is “expected to improve at par with our competitors”.
On Friday, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey explained the reason behind the ban on export of broken rice.
Mr Pandey had said there was an “absolutely unusual” increase in shipments of broken rice and broken grains were also not available in sufficient quantities for animal feed as well as the ethanol blending programme.