India's non-basmati rice exports grow 109% to $6.12 billion in 8 years
21 Apr 2022
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Exports of non-basmati rice from India witnessed an astounding growth of 109 per cent from $2.93 billion to $6.12 billion over the eight-year period from FY 2013-14 to FY 2021-22.
As per DGCIS data, India exported rice to over 150 countries across the globe in 2021-22, with exports rising over $1 million to 76 countries out of the 150 countries reported in 2021-22, indicating market diversification over the years.
Modi government’s policies are helping farmers to get access to the global markets while also ensuring food security, union minister for commerce and industry, consumer affairs, food and public distribution and textiles, Piyush Goyal, said I a tweet.
According to the DGCIS data, India exported non-basmati rice worth $2.02 billion in 2019-20, which rose to $4.80 billion in 2020-21 and further to $6.12 billion in 2021-22.
Recording a growth of 27 per cent at $6.12 billion in 2021-22, export of non-basmati rice was the top forex earner among all agri-commodities.
“In collaboration with our foreign missions, we have coordinated development of logistics as well as focus on production of quality produce, which has boosted India’s rice exports prospects,” M Angamuthu, chairman, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), said.
West African country Benin is one of the major importers of non-basmati rice from India. Other destination countries are Nepal, Bangladesh, China, Cote D’ Ivoire, Togo, Senegal, Guinea, Vietnam, Djibouti, Madagascar, Cameroon, Somalia, Malaysia, Liberia, UAE etc.
In 2020-21, India shipped non-basmati rice to nine countries - Timor-Leste, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Eswatini, Myanmar and Nicaragua, where exports were carried out for the first time or earlier shipments were smaller in volume.
India’s thrust on expanding port handling infrastructure, development of value chain involving key stakeholders along with efforts to explore new opportunities in countries or markets for rice exports in the last couple of years have led to a huge spike in rice exports.
Notwithstanding logistical challenges posed by the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, India continues to expand its rice exports footprint in the African, Asian and European Union markets, thus having the largest share in global rice trade. The robust global demand also helped the growth in India’s rice exports.
The major rice producing states are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Assam, and Haryana.
As per Second Advance Estimates for 2021-22, the total production of rice during 2021-22 is estimated at record 127.93 million tonnes, which is higher by 11.49 million tonnes than the last five years’ average production of 116.44 million tonnes.
Second Advance Estimates for 2021-22 also show total food grain production in the country at record 316.06 million tonnes, which is higher by 5.32 million tonnes than the production of food grain during 2020-21. Further, foodgrain production during 2021-22 is higher by 25.35 million tonnes than the previous five years’ (2016-17 to 2020-21) average production of foodgrains.
Notably, India is the world’s second-largest rice producer after China. The record exports would enable rice producers to reduce their stocks and also improve realisations from the increased global demand for Indian rice. The significant rise in agri-exports is also seen as testimony of the government’s commitment to increase farmers’ income by boosting exports of agricultural and processed food products from the country.
