BackIndia raises rice export floor price to $650/tonne
India raises rice export floor price to $650/tonne
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Reuters
New Delhi: India has raised the minimum price for non-basmati rice exports to $650 a tonne free-on-board from $500, the commerce ministry said, in a move to slow down sales overseas.
“The step is aimed at restricting outflow of rice from the country," Vijay Sethia, president, All India Rice Exporters’ Association, said on Friday, 7 March.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification dated 5 March on its Web site www.dgft.delhi.nic.in that the floor export price has been raised to Rs26,000 or $650 a tonne.
The government has been trying to discourage rice exports to rein in domestic prices.
India had banned exports of all non-basmati rice on 9 October, but two weeks later relented to protests from traders and allowed sales at a floor price of $425 a tonne.
In December, the floor price for exports was raised to $500.
The DGFT said basmati and non-basmati rice would now only be exported through four ports — Kandla, Mumbai, Kakinada and Kolkata.
“We will request the government to allow exports via Mundra port also," Sethia said. Mundra is one of India’s biggest ports for grains.
The government has also fixed a minimum export price for basmati rice to the Russian Federation at $900, or Rs36,000, a tonne.
India usually exports 4 million tonnes of rice a year, including one million tonnes of aromatic basmati rice, which is exclusively grown in the northern parts of India and Pakistan.
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