Steamed rice does not fall under raw rice category: FCI

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has told the Food Ministry that steamed rice does not fall under the category of raw (white) rice as some processing has been done in the form of steaming before being made available for sale.

This should come as a relief for exporters after steamed rice shipments came to a halt as Customs authorities considered it to be non-basmati white rice and sought payment of 20 per cent export duty from September 9. 

On September 20, BV Krishna Rao, President, The Rice Exporters Association of India, told businessline: “Exports of steamed rice are treated as non-basmati white rice since it does not come under parboiled rice. Therefore, exporters have to bear the 20 per cent export duty.” 

Curbing shipments

The issue came to the fore after India imposed curbs on rice exports by banning fully broken rice and imposing a 20 per cent duty on non-basmati white rice. Basmati and parboiled rice have been exempt from any curbs. 

The Indian government decided to curb rice shipments after the area under kharif rice dropped 5.5 per cent and central pool stocks with the FCI dropped to a three-year low. As of October 1, rice stocks with the FCI were 20.46 million tonnes (mt) and those of unmilled paddy 11.82 mt.

In a letter dated September 29, a copy of which was made available to businessline, FCI, in a letter to the Food Ministry’s joint secretary and senior economic advisor Mamta Shankar, said as per the process explained by the UP Rice Exporters Association hydrothermal treatment of the rice was being done.

UPREA had argued with the Department of Food and Public Distribution that it was exporting parboiled rice, which was exempt from the 20 per cent export duty. 

Steamed vs parboiled

Explaining that milling of paddy was done in two ways, FCI said in the case of steamed rice, paddy was soaked in water and steamed to obtain “gelatinised rice”. “This seals any crack within the rice causing it to become harder and resulting in higher milling yield with less breakage,” the corporation said. 

On the other hand, parboiled rice is soaked, steamed and dried, the FCI said and added that the differentiation between raw and parboiled rice can be done visually.

Following this, the Food Ministry may take up the issue with the Commerce Ministry to clear the confusion over steamed rice shipments. 

Steamed rice sells at a premium of about $600 a tonne and Nepal is the main buyer, importing nearly one million tonnes. Non-resident Indians in the Gulf region consume steamed rice. 

UPREA had taken up the issue with the Centre as they faced problems in exporting steamed rice to the Himalayan kingdom. 

According to the Food Ministry, 31.62 lakh tonnes (lt) of parboiled rice has been exported during the April-August period of the current fiscal, while 21.86 lt of white rice has been shipped. Basmati consignments made up 18.76 lt and overall, 94.68 lakh tonnes of rice was exported. Last fiscal, rice shipments totalled a record 212.32 lt. 

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