India will export 1 million tonne of non-basmati white rice to Indonesia annually for four years, as inventories in the world’s biggest exporter of the grain surged following a series of earlier restrictions on overseas shipments and a robust harvest.
Harvesting typically starts in March in Indonesia and rice is a staple for its 280 million population. Indonesia’s output is estimated to fall 2.43% this year to 30.34 million tonnes due to a longer spell of dry weather in 2023, necessitating imports.
The Amit Shah-led Union ministry of cooperation entered into a deal with Indonesia’s ministry of trade to ship supplies through the National Cooperative Exports Limited, a national enterprise set up last year by the Centre.
The Indian cooperative will source white rice from the open market through open bids from co-operative societies. India had removed a floor price for the export of white rice in October last year to boost exports after lifting a ban on exports due to higher output.
An El Nino weather pattern had caused poor monsoon rains in 2023, leading the world’s largest rice shipper to curb rice exports last year, which had been into 2024 to check domestic prices. This bumped up local stocks. India had restricted rice exports first in September 2022, banning shipments of broken rice. It also imposed a 20% duty on white rice. In July 2023, it banned all shipments of rice.
The country had produced 137.82 million tonnes in 2023-24 despite poor rains and last year’s summer-sown or kharif output was 119.93 million tonnes, according to official data.
