India’s non-basmati rice exports next calendar year may not match 2021 levels because all the rice-producing nations in the world including Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Pakistan have witnessed good crop this year, a top industry official said.
“Most these countries have come out from the Covid woes, drought-like situation and infrastructure bottlenecks,” B V Krishna Rao, president of Rice Exporters Association, told ET. This means their dependence on India’s rice supply will come down.
“In 2022, since the global production of rice is estimated to remain higher, Indian exports may not remain firm like 2021,” he said.
Even in Vietnam, where sowing got delayed due to fresh outbreak of Covid-19, sowing has picked up as the country has managed to curb the spread of the infection, Rao said.
Arrivals of the new crop in all the rice-growing nations have started and this has impacted Indian prices too. “As compared to October, prices have softened and are down by $10 per tonne,” he said. “As arrival picks up, prices will further correct.”
Export orders for non-basmati rice for December delivery has fallen to around half a million tonnes from one to one and a half a million tonnes clocked in earlier months of this year, exporters said.
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