Rice exporters see surge in demand from global buyers

After a lull of three months since the imposition of 20% export duty on rice, India's rice exporters are witnessing a surge in demand from the global markets and international buyers are willing to pay a price of $400 per tonne, as compared to $330 per tonne before the imposition of the export duty.

The government had imposed the duty on September 9 last year to contain the domestic price rise. Area under kharif fell 5.62% to 38.39 million hectares in last year's season due to poor rains in some states including UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal. Buyers are absorbing the export duty, despite which Indian rice is cheaper than rice from Thailand which is commanding a price of $500 per tonne in the international market.

"The upswing in global demand will help India to achieve 15.5 million tonnes of non-basmati rice exports, which are only 10% lower compared to last year even though earlier it was thought exports would come down to 12-13 mt following the imposition of export duty," said BV Krishna Rao, president, Rice Exporters Association of India.