Kandla Port's 40-day cargo delays put India’s rice exports at risk

Kolkata: India’s rice exporters are facing a fresh logistical headache, with congestion at Kandla port stretching cargo clearance to 35-40 days and threatening to derail shipments to overseas markets.

The problem is acute where import permits have tight validity windows. Exporters have raised concerns over the delays as the port facility must juggle bulky steel, iron, coal and urea cargoes and shipments of a perishable commodity, such as rice.

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The urgency was underscored by the Indian Rice Exporters’ Federation in a letter to APEDA chairman Abhishek Dev, seeking priority berthing for MV ORIENT GLORY, which arrived at Kandla on August 6 with capacity to load about 26,750 tonnes of rice for Angola.

The federation warned that Angola’s import permits are valid only until August 31 and that delays in berthing, loading and sailing could result in commercial losses, contractual liabilities and possible rejection of consignments. India supplies nearly 21 million tonnes of rice to the global markets. -

The disruption comes at a time when India is sitting on surplus rice stocks and is well placed to benefit from an expected rise in global demand. The shortage of containers has added to the problem, particularly for containerised basmati and non-basmati shipments from North India.

“The situation has become a serious concern for India’s rice-export sector,” said Dev Garg, vice-president, Indian Rice Exporters Federation (IREF), adding that the continuing West Asian crisis and acute shortage of containers at Kandla and Mundra ports have resulted in an inventory build-up of around 50,000-80,000 tonnes in port warehouses.

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According to Garg, the disruption has persisted since March and could become more damaging as fresh-crop arrivals begin in October. “A large share of containerised basmati and non-basmati rice shipments from North India moves through these two ports,” he said.

The logistics bottleneck is also beginning to have an impact on global prices. BV Krishna Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association, said prices of Indian non-basmati rice have risen around 13% in the global market over the past month as availability has declined. “Price of non-basmati rice has risen to $385 per tonne from $340 per tonne a month ago,” he said.

Record Basmati Shipments

The disruption comes at a time when India’s basmati rice exports have reached record levels. India exported 6.52 million tonnes of basmati rice in 2025-26, valued at Rs 50,138 crore, according to APEDA. The country also exported 15.01 million tonnes of non-basmati rice worth Rs 51,892 crore during the year..

Garg said the logistics constraints are particularly unfortunate because India is in a position to meet a potential increase in global demand. Despite El Niño conditions, India’s rice production is expected to rise from around 151 million tonnes to 153 million tonnes, creating an additional surplus of nearly 2 million tonnes, while stocks are estimated at around 27 million tonnes above buffer requirements.

At the same time, global rice production is projected to decline by around 9 million tonnes, while global import demand could rise by nearly 4 million tonnes, Garg said. India therefore has both the stocks and production capacity to bridge a substantial part of the global supply gap.