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India will take a call on the restrictions it has imposed on rice exports after getting a clear picture of rice production and procurement over the next few weeks, Union Minister of Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal, has said.
Referring to the unseasonal heavy rains in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, he said the government was concerned that the inclement weather could impact the rice production. “I am not at all happy about putting an export duty or restraint on any export. In an ideal world, I would like all of you to export more and more. Until one month ago, we were encouraging more export of rice,” he said.
India curbed rice exports from September 9 by banning shipments of fully broken rice and imposing a 20 per cent duty on non-basmati white rice. The curbs were imposed in view of the area under paddy declining by over 5 per cent this year and stocks with the Food Corporation of India dropping to a 3-year low.
In the first advance estimate, the Agriculture Ministry has pegged rice production at 104.99 million tonnes against 111.76 million tonnes a year ago.
Food security
Addressing the members of the Federation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI) here on Friday, he said the world was in a crisis. “It is my duty as a Consumers Affairs Minister and Food Minister to ensure the food security of the country,” he said.
Besides protecting the country’s food security, there was a need to build stocks for the Prime Minister’s free rice scheme for the poor. “We require additional stocks of 40 lakh tonnes of paddy and wheat a month (aggregating to 90 lakh tonnes a month overall for the scheme) for the enhanced free rice scheme,” he said.
He, however, said he would take stock of the arrivals and procurement and the situation in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (with regard to paddy crop development) and take a call on removing restrictions on exports.
Stating that the country’s exports last fiscal were $675 billion, he said the shipments registered a 17 per cent growth in the first half of the year compared with the year-ago period. “We are hoping to cross the $750-billion export mark this year, achieving the mark for the first time in 75 years,” he said.
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