MUMBAI: India's rice exports in August fell 29% year-on-year to 644,249
tonnes, Government data showed, due to weak demand from African
countries for non-basmati rice, among other factors. "Demand from west
African countries is weak for non-basmati rice. They have bought a lot
from China and don't need to buy huge volumes now," said Nitin Gupta,
Vice President of Olam India's rice business. India is the world's
biggest rice exporter but its shipments have plunged 27% in the first
five months of the 2019/20 financial year, starting on April 1, to 3.8
million tonnes, the data showed.
Iran, the biggest buyer of India's basmati rice, has nearly stopped
purchases in the last few weeks as it harvests its own crop, said an
exporter based in New Delhi.
"Iran could resume buying early next year after harvesting the local crop," the exporter said.
Rice supplies from India's summer-sown crop are expected to improve
from next month and this could moderate local prices and make exports
competitive, Gupta said.
Non-basmati rice exports could fall 40% in 2019/20 from a year ago
unless the Government provided some incentive for exports, said B V
Krishna Rao, President of the Rice Exporters Association (REA).
"The industry badly needs Government support to accelerate exports," Rao said.
India exported 11.95 million tonnes of rice in 2018/19 through March
31, down 7.2% from the previous 12 months, even though it had provided
incentives for exports of non-basmati rice for four months of the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment