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The Indian government has made it mandatory for non-basmati rice exports to be registered with the Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under the commerce ministry said in a notification on Monday: “Export policy of Non-Basmati Rice has been amended by incorporating an additional policy condition to the extent that export of Non-Basmati Rice shall be permitted only upon registration of contracts with the APEDA.”
India is one of the world’s top rice exporters. The country’s non-basmati rice export earnings increased by 6.4 per cent to $4.7 billion during the April-August period of the current fiscal year, CNBC TV Eighteen reported, reports bdnews24.com.
But the Indian government has imposed new conditions amid reports of crop damage in several states, including Punjab, Haryana, and West Bengal, due to heavy rains and floods.
It is not yet clear how much this will affect the rice market in Bangladesh. Bangladesh was once heavily dependent on India for rice imports, but now imports from other countries as well.
According to the Ministry of Food, Bangladesh imported 1.3 million tonnes of rice in the 2024-25 fiscal year, the second highest in its history.
Bangladesh has imported 800,000 tonnes of rice from India in the current fiscal year, which is 5.5 per cent of India's total non-basmati rice exports of 14.13 million tonnes. In the 2021-22 fiscal year, the amount was 16.2 million tonnes, which was 10 per cent of that year's exports.
The government decided to import rice early this year due to fears of excessive rain. International tenders were called on Aug 7 to import about 900,000 tonnes of rice. In response to the announcement, the country's media reported that the prices of rice like Swarna, Miniket and Sonamasuri in the Indian market increased by 8 to 10 per cent.