Non-basmati rice exports to China set to soar threefold
Published on: July 8, 2021.
Filed under:
Rice exports to China are expected to soar threefold this year going by a spike in orders from the neighbouring country for non-basmati broken rice, which they use in making noodles and wine, exporters said.
“In FY21, China had started sending import queries from November; but in the current fiscal, we are seeing that the country has become active from the very beginning, and they are placing substantial orders with the Indian rice companies,” Vinod Kaul, executive director of All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA), told ET.
“According to our conservative estimates, exports to China this fiscal will be around 10 lakh tonnes, compared to 3 lakh tonnes in FY21,” he said. “Our prices are competitive too, which is attracting China to buy rice from us.”
As per industry insiders, Indian exporters have offered broken rice at $300-350 per tonne to Chinese buyers, lower than ruling global prices of $390-400 per tonne.
However, exporters are facing acute shortage in availability of containers to ship the rice.
“Also, the freight cost has gone up significantly,” Kaul said. “It is a global phenomenon and we do not see an immediate respite.”
As for basmati rice, many Indian exporters are participating in tenders being floated by Iran’s Government Trading Corporation. However, private sales of basmati rice to the West Asian country have come to a grinding halt due to payment issues, industry insiders said.
“People are getting the payments for basmati exports from Iran, but they are delayed,” a leading basmati exporter from Haryana said on condition of anonymity. “Shippers raised a hue and cry when they were delayed. The concern over late payments remains. We are hoping that the government will sort out the payment issues soon.”
There was an almost 4% increase in basmati exports to 4.45 metric tonnes and a 160% surge in non-basmati to 13.09 metric tonnes in FY21, according to data with Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)).
In value terms, while the non-basmati rice segment more than doubled to $4.8 billion (Rs 35,448 crore), even higher than basmati, there was a drop of 7% to $4 billion (Rs 29,849 crore) in the case of aromatic varieties.
