India’s basmati rice exports may touch record level

India may export record quantity of basmati rice in this financial year due to increasing global demand and rise in production of premium rice, Dow Jones Newswires reported on Tuesday citing industrial and government estimates. The country’s basmati exports are expected to touch a record of 2.7 million metric tonnes in the current fiscal that ends on March 31. When compared to last year, the production of basmati rice registered modest growth rate this year due to many farmers shifted to premium rice because of poor monsoon rains as the basmati rice consumes less water. Meanwhile, the global demand for the premium rice remained strong despite economic crisis. Earlier, the exports from India stood minimal due to the imposition of an export tax of $200 per tonne in order to ensure enough supply in the domestic market. India had to face stiff competition from Pakistan earlier as the export tax of $200 a tonne made the Indian basmati costlier. However, after the withdrawal of the tax in January last year, the basmati exports revived to rise sharply. India, the largest basmati producer, exported 1.55 million to 2 million tons in the last fiscal year ended March 31, 2009, various trade and government data show. India’s basmati exports are likely to rise by 40% this fiscal as against previous year due to a bigger crop size and good demand for Pusa 1121, A.K. Gupta, adviser to the state-run Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority was quoted by Dow Jones. Exporters have signed deals to ship more than 1.07 million tons to the United Arab Emirates, 800,000 to Saudi Arabia and over 251,244 tons to Iran.