Informist, Wednesday, Sep 18, 2024

--Export body pegs India 2024-25 rice output at 142 mln tn

--CONTEXT: Govt's 3rd estimate for 2023-24 rice output 136.7 mln tn

By Sandeep Sinha

MUMBAI – The Indian Rice Exporters Federation has pegged the country's rice output for 2024-25 (Jul-Jun) at 142 mln tn, Prem Garg, national president of the federation, told Informist. This is higher than the government's projection of 136.7 mln tn for 2023-24 in the third advance estimate released in June.

The production is seen rising in the wake of an above normal monsoon rains so far in the country. "We expect a bumper rice crop this year as the rainfall has been very good," Garg said. "As we are near the end of southwest monsoon, the rainfall so far has been nearly 7-8% higher."

The production of basmati rice this year is likely to rise nearly 15% on year, he said. The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, which analyses the basmati production data, had pegged last year basmati rice output at 9.85 mln tn.

On the issue of exports, Garg said that the government needs should remove the 20% export duty on parboiled rice and non-basmati white rice, and restore the export policy which was already there before July 2023. The government had banned exports of non-basmati white rice in July 2023 due to lower paddy acreage and concern relating to the El Nino weather phenomenon.

Currently, there is a restriction on non-basmati white rice exports and exports are happening only through National Cooperative Exports Ltd. In January, the government had set an export quota of 3 mln tn of non-basmati white rice, of which the agency managed to export only 1 mln tn so far as it does not have the infrastructure needed for the task.

According to Garg, some vested interests are trying to restrict exports of non-basmati white rice through National Cooperative Exports Ltd, but this may result in the government incurring a loss to the tune of 1.05 trln rupees because of the burden of storage and financing. He said the government may end up spending up to 400 bln rupees on storage alone.

The rice industry wants the government to remove restrictions from all types of rice and should be allowed to export freely, he said.

The country's non-basmati rice exports fell over 28% to $4.57 bln in the financial year 2023-24 (Apr-Mar) from $6.36 bln a year ago. In the ongoing financial year, non-basmati rice exports shipments declined 37.6% on year in Apr-Jul to 3.34 mln tn from 5.36 mln tn in the corresponding period a year ago. In value terms, the growth had tumbled 21% to $1.60 bln against $2.03 bln, the commerce ministry data showed. End

US$1 = 83.75 rupees

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2024. All rights reserved.