Indian Rice Exporters Excluded From UN Tender Amidst Export Ban

New Delhi, Jan 18 (KNN) Indian rice exporters find themselves excluded from participating in the rice procurement tender for the World Food Programme (WFP) by the United Nations due to the restrictions imposed on rice exports by the Indian government.

The WFP tender explicitly stated, "Due to the export ban of rice in India, we are not able to accept Indian origin rice exported from India," as seen in documents obtained by ET.

India, the largest global exporter of rice, initiated a ban on the export of broken rice in September 2022.

Following that, in July 2023, the government expanded the export prohibition to include non-basmati white rice.

This move was accompanied by the imposition of a 20 per cent export duty on parboiled rice and the introduction of a minimum export price (MEP) of USD 1,200 per tonne for basmati rice in August 2023, as a response to the increasing prices in the domestic market.

Despite these export restrictions, India continues to export rice to friendly neighbouring nations, including Indonesia, Senegal, Gambia, Nepal and Bhutan, among others.

These transactions are facilitated through government-to-government arrangements and were overseen by the National Cooperative Exports Ltd (NCEL).

The WFP, established in 1961, serves as the United Nations' arm for food aid, focusing on eradicating hunger and promoting food security globally.

More than 30 rice exporters enlisted with the UN for their World Food Programme (WFP) are now experiencing financial setbacks.

This is attributed to challenges encountered by the specialised WFP-approved factories, as they grapple with the rigorous registration process, which typically extends over a year, as reported by an exporter affiliated with a WFP registered factory.

Despite the ban on wheat exports, the Indian government donated 50,000 metric tons of wheat grains to the UN WFP in Afghanistan.

This donation provided assistance to more than one million people in 2023 and 4.7 million people in 2022, as documented by the UN WFP in December 2023.

Global rice prices experienced a 9.8 per cent surge in August, reaching a 15-year high, according to the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in a September report last year.

In December 2023, wholesale food inflation in India rose to 9.38 per cent, compared to a deflation of 1.02 per cent recorded in the same month the previous year, with paddy (rice) becoming more expensive by 10.54 per cent, as per the latest government data.

(KNN Bureau)