The government on Thursday approved exports of about 0.24 million tonne (MT) of non-basmati white rice to five African countries through National Cooperative Export Ltd (NCEL).
According to a Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) notification, broken rice exports have been approved for Kenya (0.1 MT), Egypt (0.06 MT), Madagascar (0.05 MT), Comoros (0.02 MT) and Equatorial Guinea (0.01 MT).
In October, the government had given nod for exports of 1.34 MT of non-basmati white rice to Philippines, Cameroon, Malaysia, Ivory Coast, republic of Guinea, Nepal and Seychelles through NCEL.
Last month, the government had allowed exports of about 0.9 MT of broken rice to five African and Asian countries — Senegal, Mali, Gambia, Indonesia and Bhutan through NCEL.
On July 20, while the government banned shipment of white rice to boost domestic supplies, the exports are allowed to meet the food security needs of the developing countries through a government to government (G2G) route.
It had imposed 20% export duties on par-boiled rice to improve domestic supplies till March 31, 2024. Retail rice prices rose by 11.64% in October, marginally lower from previous month. Rice inflation has been rising in double digits since the beginning of the year.
India has been the world’s largest exporter of rice over the last decade with more than 40% share in annual global rice trade
of 55 MT.
In FY23, India exported a record 17.78 MT of non-basmati rice worth of $ 6.35 billion.
During the April-September period of the current fiscal, the country has exported 6.8 MT of non-basmati rice, a decline of 23% from the same period previous fiscal.
