India to ship first consignment of non Basmati rice to China tomorrow

NEW DELHI: The first consignment of Indian non-Basmati rice is scheduled to be shipped to China tomorrow, commerce and industry ministry said on Thursday.

100 tonnes of non-Basmati (white rice 5% broken) will be sent to China from Nagpur and received by China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO) which is one of China's state-owned food processing holding companies.

“After concerted efforts of the government of India, 19 rice mills and processing units have been registered for export of non-basmati rice from India to China,” the ministry said in a statement.


The protocol between General Administration of Customs of Chinese government and India’s Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare on phyto-sanitary requirements for exporting rice from India to China was signed on June 9, 2018 at Qingdao, China, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit there. This amended the earlier protocol on phyto-sanitary requirements for exporting rice from India to China to include the export of non-basmati varieties of rice from India.

New Delhi has been pitching for market access for a variety of its goods to China in a move to bridge the widening trade deficit and sugar, rice and pharmaceuticals have been high on the agenda.