Ban on non-basmati rice exports is set to weigh down the Kerala government?s populist paddy shopping trolley to its breaking point. About 45,625 tonne of export-eyed semi-brown rice milled from central Kerala will now have no option but to crowd its way into Supplyco?s (State?s food retail outfit) highly subsidised paddy procurement plan.In Kerala, the market price for paddy is Rs 5.50 per kilo. The Centre?s procurement price is Rs 6.95 per kilo. And factoring in the Centre support, Supplyco procures paddy at Rs 9 per kilo. Due to the export ban, market price of rice could tumble further.
?The breaking point may not be as such on the procurement bill, but on infrastructure expenses,? according to Yogesh Gupta (managing director, Kochi-based Supplyco). ?Even if the state can undertake a higher rice procurement bill, the storage, milling, and logistics costs are where the shoe pinches. The state?s milling capacities and the supervisory manpower are desperately short,? he says. Exporters to the Gulf have been quick to wave the expat-Indian?s food preference plank to urge the Centre to waive the semi-brown rice from an export ban. ?It has relatively higher fibre content and nutrients,? says NP Antony, MD, Kalady Rice Millers Consortium. If the export vacuum continues, by next season the procurement bill is feared to brim over Rs 80 crore. The lighter the state planners? conscience over the paddy business that lost the Gulf export pie, heavier its resource headache in the coming days.
