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India’s Rice Exports Likely To Surpass FY21 Record Of 17 Million Tonnes

The rise in exports was attributed to newer destinations in Africa and Asia and stockpiling by receiver countries.

<div class="paragraphs"><p>A farm worker holds a bundle of cut rice and a sickle in India. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)</p></div>
A farm worker holds a bundle of cut rice and a sickle in India. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)

India’s rice exports is expected to surpass its previous year’s record of 17 million tonnes amid dispatches to newer markets.

The world’s largest rice exporter sold over 11.79 million tonnes of the foodgrain in overseas markets during April-October in the ongoing financial year, according to government data. That’s a 33% increase over the same period in the preceding year, and includes basmati and non-basmati variants.

The rise in exports was attributed to newer destinations in Africa and Asia and stockpiling by receiver countries.

“India continues to supply rice to the global market thus ensuring food security in many countries while many countries are stockpiling in anticipation of logistical disruption because of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Dr M Angamuthu, chairman of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority, said.

India's non-basmati and basmati rice exports were valued at Rs 35,448 crore and Rs 29,849 crore in in FY21, data showed.

Nine countries like Timor-Leste, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Eswatini, Myanmar and Nicaragua either received smaller shipments of rice the previous time or were new receivers of the grain, the data showed.