The Central government banned Exports of Broken Rice Called Crubs and imposed a 20% Duty on the Export of non-basmati rice. a few months earlier government banned the export of wheat, this decision comes after the fear of a price increase in cereals, due to lower output of Kharif crop
driven by the lower output of the Kharif crop due to uneven distribution of the southwestern monsoon that affected sowing.
The announcement came after months of speculation that the government might take such measures to cool domestic food inflation. Earlier this calendar year, export restrictions were imposed on wheat after domestic prices surged when large quantities were committed for overseas sales and the maturing Rabi crop was damaged by a rapid increase in temperature in March.
Retail prices of rice have been creeping up for several months now, it is about 8 percent higher than a year ago, data collected by the price monitoring cell of the consumer affairs ministry show. Wholesale prices in July were 9 percent higher than a year ago. Fears of lower output this Kharif season could have exerted further upward pressure on prices of the grain in the open market if the tariff measures and restrictions on exports were not announced.
India is the largest exporter of rice, accounting for 40 percent of global shipments. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in its August rice outlook report, estimated that India would export 22 million tonnes in 2023, up from about 21 million tonnes projected for the current year. This is more than the combined exports of rice from Thailand, Vietnam, and Pakistan. The shipments may fall lower than these estimates due to the tariff measures.
In addition to whole-grain milled rice, India exports enormous quantities of broken kernels to China, West Africa, and Vietnam. Thus, the ban on the export of broken rice will be a big setback not just for traders but also for importers such as China. The USDA had estimated in its August report that China was expected to increase its import of broken from India and other rice-growing countries.
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