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30 Dec, 2022 News Image

$50 billion trade under India-Oz ECTA seen: Piyush Goyal

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that conservatively, India is looking at trade worth $50 billion with Australia over the next five years. At an event in Mumbai to mark the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) coming into force, he also said that the government has talked about promoting sports, upgrading sports facilities in India, and the wine industry besides the traditional sectors.

'We expect bilateral trade to grow to $50 billion in the next 4-5 years but our vision is to grow in non-traditional areas as well such as sport goods and wine industry,' he said.

The minister emphasised that sensitive areas have been kept out of the pact and India’s dairy and farmers are protected.

'This will also eliminate the double taxation on IT services that was making us less competitive. Going ahead, my guess is we will save a billion dollars every year, maybe 5-7 years down the road,' Goyal said.

It will come into effect from April 1.

Goyal also said that India hopes to sign two free trade agreements (FTA) next year.

'We hope this calendar year gives us a couple of good news as for trade agreements,' he said, referring to a trade pact with the UK and an Early Progress Trade Agreement with Canada.

He said negotiations are scheduled with the UK, EU and Canada next month.

'The trade deal (ECTA) was signed on April 2 and the negotiations were completed in record 88 days. This is an agreement negotiated with the speed of Brett Lee and the perfection of Sachin Tendulkar,' he said.

Goyal said that even before officials from India and Australia could begin their meeting in New Delhi on September 30, 2021 and announce the re-launch of negotiations, the ministers from the two sides had already brokered an understanding over coffee and lunch.

After handing over certificates of origin to the first among the Indian goods being sent to Australia after the agreement, Goyal said the ECTA will benefit a slew of sectors, including textiles, gems and jewellery and also information technology, which gets aided by the dropping of double taxation.

'They don’t have much of a manufacturing base and are largely dependent for imports. Their largest imports come from on a country who is not very friendly right now. So, they’re very keen to expand to an alternate and powerful large manufacturing base like india,' Goyal said.

'We’re discussing how to expand investments in the two countries and improve mobility,' he said on being asked about expansion of the ECTA to a full fledged FTA.

The agreement is a win-win document that has the complementarities as its fundamental building block, Goyal said, adding that India will get access to cheaper raw materials like coal from Australia while the finished Indian goods will have a market there.

ECTA allows 98% of the Indian exports by value to enter Australia duty free.

On being asked about former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian’s comments that tariffs hurt the government's production-linked incentive scheme, the country's inward-looking attitudes on trade and the disservice done to Indian enterprise by the government's urge to create national champions in the industry by promoting specific groupings, Goyal said:

"The former CEA believes in completely opening up all businesses to free trade.

We believe that it is important that we calibrate the opening up so that Indian industry gets enough time to mature, develop themselves and be able to compete on fair terms. So, PLI is that kickstart.'

'We are doing a calibrated opening up, supporting industry wherever required,' he said.

RCEP exit

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which India walked out of in 2019, would have become a free trade agreement with China in effect, Goyal said.

'It would've been death knell because it was nothing but a free trade agreement with China and we would have thrown Indian industry to unfair competition from a non-transparent economy like China. Indian industry was petrified,' he said, terming India’s exit an 'economically prudent and wise' decision.

As of now, with the agreement with Australia, India has separately struck trade agreements with 13 of the 15 countries in the RCEP, while only New Zealand and China remain.

'With New Zealand, we have very small trade though they are very keen to do an agreement with India but we don’t have the bandwidth to do one more agreement,' he said.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

29 Dec, 2022 News Image

High prices, robust demand help banana-growers recover from lockdown-time losses.

Banana farmers, especially those growing for exports, have made handsome gains from high banana prices and good West Asian demand, Kalyansing Baburao Patil, head of Jain Irrigation System, a diversified agricultural conglomerate based in Jalgaon (Maharashtra), and a leading producer and marketer of tissue-cultured plants of high-yielding banana varieties, told The Federal in a video interview.

Bananas are trading at Rs 14-15 a kg in Jalgaon, the banana-producing hub, and those for exports even touched a peak of Rs 30 a kg in Solapur during the year. This is higher than the pre-pandemic price of Rs 10-12 per kg. Though prices of inputs like fertilisers have risen considerably, farmers are making a profit of about Rs 3.5 lakh an acre.

Some farmers earning in lakhs

Some farmers, who have large acreages under banana, are earning in tens of lakhs or even a couple of crores, Patil said, citing examples from Jalgaon in Maharashtra, Barwani in Madhya Pradesh and Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh. This is quite a change from enforced losses banana farmers endured during the lockdown in 2020.

Indian exports rose by 61 per cent to 3.41 lakh tonnes in 2021-22, even as bananas traded globally dropped to about 20 million tonnes due to disease outbreaks and cyclone damage in the main exporting countries. Though India’s average annual production is about 33 million tonnes — a quarter of the world’s output of 118 million tonnes — it ranks low on exports. India’s average export quantity is 0.24 million tonnes, about the same as Vietnam (0.28 million tonnes) and Cambodia (0.29 million tonnes). This compares poorly with Ecuador’s export of 6.84 million tonnes and 3.53 million tonnes of the Philippines.

Farmers’ savings: Rs 3 lakh per acre

Patil said there was good demand for Indian bananas and it could even supply them to the European Union and Russia, which are currently supplied by Latin American countries and the Philippines because the time taken, 20-25 days, is about the same. India’s main export markets are Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Oman — in that order.

The yields of banana farmers who practised the scientific methods of planting tissue-cultured clones of high-yielding Grand Nain bananas and installed drip-irrigation equipment for keeping the gardens moist and supplying plant nutrients as required were as high as 35-40 tonnes per acre. Given the cost of cultivation of about Rs 1.2 lakh per acre and an average price of Rs 12 per kg, a farmer could save Rs 3 lakh per acre.

‘Drip irrigation is central to high banana production’

The Grand Nain variety scores over Indian varieties as it is high-yielding, the fruit are straight and of the length (at least 7 inches) and girth (37-47 mm) preferred in export markets. It delivers the first harvest in about 10 months and the next (from secondary shoots or suckers) in 18 months. Jain Irrigation had Imported the clones of the Honduran variety from Israel in the early 1990s to drive the sales of its drip irrigation equipment (which it manufactures), but its clones are superior to Israeli ones, Singh claimed. This year, the company sold about 100 million cloned saplings, a company official said.

Drip irrigation is central to high banana production, Patil said. Bananas are generally not advised to be grown in zones with annual rainfall below 2000 mm. But in the banana-producing hub of Jalgaon, the annual rainfall is round 700 mm. The plants also need high humidity. Jalgaon’s weather is dry. Drip irrigation helps in keeping the root zone of the banana plants moist and aerated throughout. With additional drip irrigation lines and water dripping from shade net fencing around the gardens, the desired microclimate is created, Patil said.

Protocols for export production

Apart from scientific farming practices, pre- and post-harvesting protocols have to be observed for export production, Patil said. Though Grand Nain bunches have about 17-18 hands, only eight should be retained so that the fingers or fruits can grow to the required size. The florets have to be removed to keep off sucking pests like aphids and the bunches must be sprayed a couple of times with fungicides and insecticides. They must also be covered with plastic sheets to prevent bruising, age tagged for uniform ripening in ethylene chambers, and the pulp temperature brought down from the room temperate of 35 degrees C to 14 degrees C within six hours of harvesting.

Though Jalgaon, Solapur and Kolhapur (in Maharashtra) were banana cluster development zones, as per Apeda, the official export promotion agency, infrastructure like pre-cooling facilities and pack houses were lacking. The roads in Jalgaon were in a state of disrepair, so exporters were coping by improvising the transport equipment to prevent damage to fruit. Without coordinated and purposive action from growers, exporters and the government, the export opportunities available to India would be squandered.

Source: thefederal.com

29 Dec, 2022 News Image

India-Ireland trade and investment opportunities post-Brexit.

The last few years witnessed a colossal transformation of the international trading systems. These events, especially Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU), Brexit have underscored the importance of trade diversification. Within the EU, Ireland is a key trade and investment partner for India. In the year 2020, India’s exports to Ireland accounted for 1.6% of India’s total exports to the EU and imports accounted for 1.2% of India’s total imports from the EU. India is a net exporter of goods to Ireland and there is potential for increasing trade further. India’s trade in services with Ireland is four times the bilateral trade in goods and there is a potential to increase it further. Ireland is among the top countries in Europe that speaks English as a primary language. There are synergies between the two markets, making Ireland an attractive base for India to access and export services in the EU market, especially after Brexit. With this background, using secondary data and information, this paper explores trade and investment opportunities between India and Ireland.

Bilateral trade in goods between India and Ireland increased at the rate of 6.5% over the previous decade. It peaked in 2014 largely because of export of airplanes and other aircrafts, which accounted for nearly 40% of the total exports from India to Ireland in that year. Subsequently over a span of six years, total trade fell from $1.26 billion to $947 million. Commodity-wise analysis of export data shows that nearly 38% of the value of India’s total exports to Ireland in 2020 comprised of organic chemicals, which are the basic raw material for pharmaceutical products while about 33% of the value of India’s total imports from Ireland in the same year comprised of machinery and mechanical appliances. Seventy per cent of the top 30 products exported from India to Ireland are accounted for by high skill and technology intensive items.

Although the total bilateral trade in 2020 was $947 million, in which India’s exports accounted for $543 million, there remains a huge untapped trade potential between India and Ireland. Trade potential refers to the value of trade which can be traded between India and Ireland, rather than by the two countries with the rest of the world. It is estimated that India’s export potential to Ireland, for products in which India is globally competitive, is $19 billion for the year 2020. Of this, 71% cent accrues to the top 50 products with $13.5 billion export potential. Within the top 50 products, 21 products were traded in 2020 (henceforth referred to as currently traded products accounting for 65% of the export potential, while there were 29 products that had potential, but were not being traded (new products with export potential) which accounted for 35%.

Interestingly, out of the 21 items that are currently exported and have high potential, 11 are also among India’s top 30 export items to Ireland. This includes pharmaceutical products with 27.3% share in the value of top 50 export potential items, followed by organic chemicals, nuclear reactors and machinery. This trade potential can be released by overcoming tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers. In fact, non-tariff barriers, particularly those associated with product quality and standards – are a bigger obstacle for the developing countries to export to the developed markets. Among India’s top 50 products with export potential to Ireland, many products are skill and technology intensive manufactures. However, India’s technology intensive manufacturers – although competitive and exportable to several other countries – are possibly unable to meet the EU / Irish product standards, to ensure the safety and protection of human health and the environment in the EU market. Pharmaceutical products are one of the top export potential items, however, access to new drugs is also subject to a lengthy decision-making process.

Source: hindustantimes.com

29 Dec, 2022 News Image

India's pulses market hots up after arrival of new tur, early chana crops.

With the arrival of the new tur and chana crops in central and western India, the government has its finger on India’s pulse(s) market.

Trade and market sources say tur, masoor, and urad will trade above their minimum support price (MSP) in short to medium term, even as moong remains below MSP.

Chana, sown primarily in North India, is likely to cross the MSP of Rs 5,335 per quintal only in the medium term. Presently, chana is trading below the MSP.

The MSP of tur and urad is Rs 6,600 per quintal; masur’s Rs 6,000 per quintal. The MSP of moong is Rs 7,755 per quintal. That of chana’s Rs 5,335 per quintal.

The prices are for the 2022-23 (July-June) and 2023-24 (April-March) crop marketing seasons.

Chana

'Chana output, according to industry information, is expected to be the same as last year at about 9.5 million tonnes (mt), although there could be some drop in area. The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India, as indicated by market intelligence, has about 2.5-2.8 mt of chana in its inventory, of which it is planning to give roughly 1.5 mt to states for creating buffer stocks at a discount,' says Rahul Chauhan, commodity analyst, IndiaGrain (iGrain).

He expects a bullish trend in chana from next year onwards.

If Madhya Pradesh (MP) abolishes the mandi tax on pulses purchased from other states, he expects good demand for the state’s millers.

'By the end of this financial year, about 90,000 tonnes (of chana) is expected to be imported,' he adds.

Indrajit Paul, senior manager (commodity research), Origo Commodities (Origo), says chana acreage this rabi season, in line with his ground report, may fall 7-8 per cent since farmers have shifted to other remunerative crops like wheat and mustard.

'The drop in acreage will come from states like MP, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Rajasthan, while in Maharashtra, acreages will increase from the previous year,' says Paul.

According to official data (until December 23), chana has been sown across 10.33 million hectares. This is 0.68 per cent more than the same period last year.

Paul says the prices of chana will trade sideways in the short term in the price band of Rs 5,050-5,250 per quintal.

Tur

Chauhan of iGrain observes that output of tur this year is expected to be about 3.2-3.4 mt. This is less than last year due to inclement weather and rains in Karnataka and Maharashtra in the latter half of the season.

The Centre in its first Advance Estimates has gauged the production of tur this kharif season at 3.89 mt. This is 10.36 per cent less than the same period last year.

Yet the availability of tur will be smooth this year, mainly due to imports from Africa and Myanmar, along with the domestic crop.

While prices will feel the squeeze in the short term, they will increase after April.

'Prices of tur will trade sideways to weak in the short term in the price band of Rs 7,400 –7,700 per quintal. The demand remains weak for tur dal. The new crop arrivals have started in Karnataka and Maharashtra,' says Paul.

Urad

Chauhan says the production of urad is expected to be about 2.4 mt this financial year.

Its consumption is likely to be 3 mt. Imports could be more than 0.5 mt, compared to the previous financial year’s 610,000 tonnes.

He says prices in the domestic market are closer to the MSP and will remain so.

'Since the past three seasons, the urad crop has been impacted by unfavourable weather. Without a substantial jump in domestic production, it is unfeasible to meet domestic demand. Hence, the prices of urad will mostly hinge on the imported market,' says Chauhan.

Paul says the prices of urad will trade sideways in the short term in the price band of Rs 6,850-7,150 per quintal.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare’s sowing data, the sowing of urad in the rabi season is complete across 520,000 hectares until now. This is 5 per cent more than the same period last year.

Masoor, moong

According to Origo, masoor prices will trade sideways to weak in the short term in the price band of Rs 6,250-6,550 per quintal. An increase in the sowing of masoor amid good imports will keep prices under pressure.

According to the latest sowing report from the agriculture ministry, masoor has been sown across 1.76 million hectares (until December 23). This is 8.6 per cent more than the same period last year.

The demand for masoor is expected to be bearish, says the commodity brokerage.

Prices of moong, says Origo, will trade sideways in the short term and possibly in the price band of Rs 6,600-7,000 per quintal.

Chauhan says the prices of masoor have softened in the past month and a half by Rs 100-1,500 per quintal ahead of the new crop arrival in February 2023. After arrival, the prices may come under pressure.

He says the output of masoor this financial year is expected to be 1.4 mt, while demand is 2.5 mt.

In the past three years, the production of moong has risen. Moong is a short-duration crop. In India, it is cultivated in different states almost all through the year.

Its prices were better last month but are under pressure now since the demand for pulses drops in the winter months.

Source: business-standard.com

29 Dec, 2022 News Image

Sweet-spot. 149 sugar mills exchange 20% of export quota.

As many as 149 sugar mills, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, have exchanged their sugar quota of over 12 lakh tonnes (lt), until December 26 as just one week left before the window closes on January 4.

Mills are said to be getting a premium of Rs.3-4/kg and found takers in factories located near ports in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The Centre on November 5 permitted export of 60 lt of sugar which need to be shipped by May 31, 2023. The Food Ministry allowed the shipments by allocating export quota to each sugar mill and also made the allotted quantity exchangeable between mills. As per the guidelines, any mill which wants to surrender the export quota will have to do so before January 4 and the quota will be adjusted with domestic sale quantity allotted every month.

For instance, a mill that exchanges the export quota will have to sell same quantity over and above its regular monthly quota in domestic market, and similarly a mill that agrees to export more by buying the quota from another mill will have to forego the same quantity (bought) from the regular monthly domestic sales allocation. The domestic allocation in lieu of exchanged export quota is also equally shared over a period so that a mill does not get pressured to sell the entire quantity in one month.

In the latest eighth round, the Food Ministry on December 26 allowed 11 mills to exchange 1.56 lt of sugar export quota with eight mills.

Meanwhile, the sugar mills have completed export of 12 lt of additional sugar quota over and above 100 lt allowed for 2021-22 season (October-September), sources said. As many as 10 lt got exported by September 30, while 2 lt could not be shipped for which the government had allowed those mills to complete the shipment by December 31, the sources said.

According to industry data, total exports by the end of this month could be around 15 lt (including about 6 lt shipped in November) after shipments began from November following the allocation of mill-wise quota. About 50 lt of contracts have already been made by mills.

Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra on December 15 had said the government would assess the overall production and demand scenario in January and decide if additional quantity to be released for export beyond 60 lt. Speaking on the sidelines of an industry event, he had said the situation was comfortable and the production might exceed 410 lt in current season.

Source: thehindubusinessline.com

29 Dec, 2022 News Image

India extends policy to import refined palm oil at lower duty.

India extended a policy to import refined palm oil at a lower duty and allowed imports of 51,000 tonnes of cotton at nil duty in 2023, the government said in a notification.

The concessional duty structure for the refined palm oil had been due to expire on December 31. It has been extended 'until further orders,' the government said. In December 2021, India cut basic import tax on refined palm oil and brought down the total taxes on their imports to 13.75% from 19.25% earlier.

The duty cut made refined palm oil imports lucrative for Indian refiners, which traditionally prefer to import crude palm oil.

'Refined palm oil imports jumped this year because of lower duty. Even in the coming months, we will continue to see imports of around 200,000 tonnes of refined palm oil per month,' said Sandeep Bajoria, chief executive of Sunvin Group, a vegetable oil brokerage and consultancy firm.

India imports more than two-thirds of its edible oil needs and has been struggling to contain a rally in local oil prices over the last few months.

The country imports palm oil mainly from top producers Indonesia and Malaysia, while other oils, such as soy and sunflower, come from Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine and Russia.

India also raised duty free imports quota of extra-long staple cotton to 51,000 tonnes for next year from 419 tonnes for 2022.

The south Asian country also allowed imports of 150,000 tonnes of lentils and 34,000 tonnes of almonds at 50% of applied duty under the tariff-rate quota (TRQ), the government said.

Source: economictimes.com

29 Dec, 2022 News Image

Nutrition and food security top priority at G20, meetings being lined up.

ENSURING FOOD security and nutrition will be among the top four priority areas in meetings of the agriculture working group during India’s G20 Presidency till September next year, sources told The Indian Express.

On the agenda of this group so far are five meetings on agriculture, including three deputy meetings, one of chief scientists and another of ministers, sources said. Several side events have also been planned for these meetings, with the benefits of millets listed as a key theme.

The other priority areas of the group are developing sustainable agriculture and climate smart approach; building inclusive agricultural value chains and food systems; and, technology and digitisation for agricultural transformation, sources said.

These meetings assume significance in light of the growing global food crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A source said that of the two agriculture deputy meetings (ADMs), the first will be held in Indore, on February 13-15, 2023, to take stock of G20 initiatives in the sector, an Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) and wheat.

The side events include exhibitions on agri start-ups, millets and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and an excursion to Mandu Fort in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh.

The second ADM will be held in Chandigarh on March 29-31, with a separate meeting of AMIS, a millet exhibition showing climate resilience and an excursion to Rock Garden planned on the sidelines.

The third meeting will be of agriculture chief scientists in Varanasi on April 17-19. The side events include a millet exhibition showing regional varieties, and visits to the South Campus of BHU (Mirzapur) and the ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (Varanasi).

The fourth meeting will be held in Hyderabad on June 15, along with a discussion on the mainstreaming of millets for better nutrition and climate resilience.

The Ministerial meeting will also be held in Hyderabad, on June 16-17, and includes a cultural programme at Golconda Fort, a visit to the Indian Institute of Millet Research, and another exhibition on millets and its health benefits.

As part of the decision-making process in the multilateral G20, working groups comprising experts and officials from various ministries will deliberate on a range of internationally relevant issues in their areas of focus.

The G20 Agriculture Deputies Group was created during the French Presidency in 2011 to deal with volatility in global food prices.

Source: indianexpress.com

29 Dec, 2022 News Image

India-Australia pact kicks in; zero duty for 96.4% exported goods.

The government has begun reaching out to exporters of apparel, chemicals, plastics, gems and jewellery, engineering goods and technical textiles to take advantage of the duty concessions offered by the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), which comes into force Thursday.

Australia is offering zero-duty access to India from day one for about 96.4% of the products exported, including many that currently attract 4-5% customs duty in Australia, such as leather, textiles, and gems and jewellery.

'This ECTA has a higher value addition of 35% to specify the country of origin to avoid circumvention from other countries. We expect gains in many sectors where China, Vietnam and Bangladesh enjoy zero-duty access in Australia,' said an official.

India's textiles and apparel exports to Australia are expected to grow to $1.1 billion from $0.5 billion in the next three years.

'With the India-Australia ECTA getting operationalised, India will have a slight duty advantage over Vietnam and Indonesia for imports in the Australian market. India's readymade garment exports to Australia would grow three times by 2025,' said Sudhir Sekhri, vice chairman of the Apparel Export Promotion Council.

While India's exports are diversified, ranging from agriculture, garments and railway engines to telecom, 95% of India's imports from Australia are raw materials and mining products needed by industry. India's goods exports to Australia were $8.3 billion and imports were $16.75 billion in 2021-22. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade on Wednesday notified the procedure for allocation of tariff rate quotas for imports of certain Australian products, including lentils, almonds, oranges and pears under the agreement.

India's textiles and apparel exports to Australia are expected to grow to $1.1 billion from $0.5 billion in the next three years.

'We expect big gains in exports to Australia due to demand increases there and because it is looking at an alternative to China to source goods,' said Arun Kumar Garodia, chairman of Engineering Export Promotion Council India.

Source: economictimes.com

29 Dec, 2022 News Image

Total of 1,002 project proposals under various sub-schemes of PMKSY approved.

Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Prahlad Singh Patel has said that the Gross Value Addition (GVA) in food processing sector has increased from Rs 1.79 lakh crore in 2016-17 to Rs 2.37 lakh crore in 2020-21 at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.27 %. The GVA for the last four years and latest year i.e. 2020-21 are as under:

(Rs. in lakh crore)

2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Gross Value Added	1.79	1.93	2.36	2.26	2.37

2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
Gross Value Added	1.79	1.93	2.36	2.26	2.37

Source: National Accounts Statistics, M/o Statistics & Programme Implementation.

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Patel said that the ministry implements various schemes to boost value addition in the food processing sector, generate employment opportunities, augment income of farmers and so on. Although no target is set for employment generation, however, the food processing sector contributes 12.2% of employment in the registered manufacturing sector.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries implements the Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY) which inter–alia aims at creation of modern post-harvest infrastructure, boosting value addition, providing better returns to farmers, creation of employment opportunities and so on.

In addition, the ministry is also implementing the PM-Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme for providing financial, technical and business support for setting up/upgradation of two lakh existing micro food processing enterprises across the country. A new Production Linked Incentive scheme (PLIS) for Food Processing Sector is being implemented to support creation of global food manufacturing champions.

Source: fnbnews.com

29 Dec, 2022 News Image

Basmati, non-basmati rice exports up 7.37 pc in Apr-Oct: Industry data.

India's aromatic basmati and non-basmati rice exports rose 7.37 per cent to 126.97 lakh tonnes during the April-October period of the current fiscal, despite restrictions on the shipments, according to industry data. Exports stood at 118.25 lakh tonnes in the same period during the previous fiscal.

'Despite curbs on exports of some varieties of rice, the overall exports remained strong so far,' said Vijay Sethia, former president at All India Exporters Association.

Out of total exports, basmati rice exports rose to 24.97 lakh tonnes during the April-October period of the 2022-23 fiscal, from 21.59 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period, he told PTI.

Non-basmati rice exports increased to 102 lakh tonnes from 96.66 lakh tonnes during the comparable period, Sethia added.

Basmati rice was shipped mainly to traditional markets of the US, Europe and Saudi Arabia, while non-basmati rice was exported largely to African countries.

In September, the government had banned export of broken rice and had also slapped 20 per cent customs duty on non-basmati rice in order to boost domestic availability and contain price rise.

Sethia said non-basmati rice exports were not affected due to the imposition of customs duty. The exports remained robust.

The government imposed curbs on rice exports to check prices that flared up due to likely fall in production.

As per the first estimate of the agriculture ministry, rice output is estimated to decline to 104.99 million tonnes in the kharif season of 2022-23 crop year (July-June) from 111.76 million tonnes in the previous kharif season.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com