BUSINESS INFORMATION - India Import Rice After Season That Bad

BUSINESS INFORMATION - India Import Rice After Season That Bad. India has started importing rice to meet the estimated shortage of production in large numbers after the driest rainy season in nearly four decades, India news agency said, the Press Trust of India (PTI), Thursday.


Steps to import rice by the government amid fears that production will be slightly down to more than 16 million tons of the world's second largest rice producer in the world and following the annual production is remarkable.

"Approximately 400,000 tons of rice have been imported by traders and this figure will rise," the news agency said quoting the exporter, who did not want to be named.

The price of rice in the domestic market rose by around 25 percent in the last four months because of concerns about supply.

India, which has a population of nearly 1.2 billion people, experiencing the rainy season, the driest since 1972 that affect rice production areas in the country.

Rice plants and then exposed to extensive flooding.

The agency said the purchase from overseas markets by private traders will increase in coming days because the government has abolished import duty of 70 percent.

India last year produced 99.2 million tons of rice.

Minister of Agriculture T. Nanda Kumar said the government earlier this week would not import rice, but it has created opportunities for private traders to do so.

Secretary General of the Federation of Rice Milling Association of India, Sushil Kumar Choudhury, said some traders in southern India has contracted to import large quantities of rice from countries such as Thailand rice.

"Prices in global markets illuminates when India decided to enter the import market," said Gurnam Arora, joint managing director of the main exporter basmati rice, Kohinoor.

"Imports must be done secretly. If not, exporters will take advantage of it," he told the news agency.