• In July this year, India banned the export of non-basmati white rice amid depleting public stock in the Central pool, elevated cereal prices, and looming threat of the uneven monsoon.

• After India banned the export of non-basmati white rice on July 20, there was a sharp jump in the price of rice across markets. In the following months, prices have come down, but are still higher than the pre-ban period.
• There has been no respite from the increase in the prices of rice despite the export ban.
• As per the data available on the Agriculture Ministry’s UPAg portal, the daily average wholesale price of rice was recorded at Rs 5,800 per quintal on October 24, 2023, which was 27.43 per cent higher than a month ago (Rs 4,208.57 per quintal).

• India is the biggest exporter of rice in the world.
• As per the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), India accounted for about 40 per cent of the total rice exports (56 million tonnes) in the world during calendar year 2022.
• India’s rice exports are broadly categorised into basmati and non-basmati rice.
• The non-basmati rice category includes 6 sub-categories— rice in husk of seed quality; other rice in husk; husked (brown) rice; rice parboiled; non-basmati white rice; and broken rice.
• While the government has banned export of two sub-categories of broken rice and non-basmati white rice, there is no ban on the remaining four sub-categories.

• In the financial year 2022-23, India’s basmati export stood at 45.61 lakh metric tonnes.
• Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE, and Yemen were the top 5 destinations of Indian basmati during 2022-23.
• In all, India exported basmati to 149 countries during the last financial year.
• During the first five months (April-August) of the current financial year (2023-24), the basmati rice export has reached 20 lakh metric tonnes.

 Non-Basmati Rice

•  The non-basmati rice includes varieties like Sona Masuri and Jeera rice.
• In financial year 2022-23 (April-March), India exported 177.91 lakh metric tonnes of non-basmati rice, of which a maximum 78.48 lakh metric tonnes was parboiled rice, and it was followed by non-basmati white rice (64.01 lakh metric tonnes), and broken rice (30.49 lakh metric tonnes).
• The other three categories accounted for a lower quantity: other rice in husk (4.61 lakh metric tonnes); rice in husk of seed quality (19.68 thousand metric tonnes); and husked (brown) rice (11.65 thousand metric tonnes).

Non-basmati White Rice

• Out of the 64.01 lakh metric tonnes of non-basmati white rice India exported during the last financial year, a maximum of 5.82 lakh metric tonnes was exported to Benin, followed by Madagascar (5.55 LMT), and Kenya (5.46 LMT). Cote D’ Ivoire, Mozambique, Vietnam, Angola, Togo and Nepal were other countries among the top 10 buyers of India’s non-basmati white rice.
• In all, India exported the non-basmati white rice to 142 countries during 2022-23.
• Most of these countries were poor, and were located in Africa.
• In the first 5 months (April-August) of the current financial year (2023-24), 19.74 lakh metric tonnes of non-basmati white rice has been exported to 117 countries, with Kenya (4.12 lakh metric tonnes) topping the chart, followed by Mozambique (2.01 lakh metric tonnes, and Vietnam (1.53 lakh metric tonnes).

• The dictionary meaning of ‘parboil’ is ‘partly cooked by boiling’.
• Thus, the term par-boiled rice refers to the rice that has been partially boiled in paddy form before milling.
• There is no ban on export of this category of rice from India. In 2022-23, India exported 78.48 lakh metric tonnes of par-boiled rice to 131 countries.
• Benin (9.69 lakh metric tonnes), Bangladesh (7.26 lakh metric tonnes), Guinea (7.07 lakh metric tonnes), Côte D’ Ivorie (6.97 lakh metric tonnes), and Togo (6.89 lakh metric tonnes) were the top five importers of the Indian par-boiled rice in the last financial year.
• In the first five months (April-August) of the financial year 2023-24, 37.72 lakh metric tonnes of par-boiled rice has been exported, which is 19.28 per cent higher than 31.62 lakh metric tonnes in the same period last year. In the current financial year, Benin, Guinea, Togo, Somalia and Vietnam are the top five buyers of Indian par-boiled rice.

•  The husked (brown) rice is the type of rice from which only the husk has been removed, while the brown rice is unpolished rice.
• A quantity of 11,656.86 metric tonnes of husked (brown) rice was exported from India during the financial year 2022-23, which was 76.80 per cent lower than the quantity (50,249 metric tonnes) exported in the year 2021-22.
• Netherlands, UK, USA, Saudi Arabia, and Canada were top 5 buyers of this category of rice during the last financial year.
• In the first five months of the current financial year, only 7,146 metric tonnes of husked (brown) rice have been exported.

• Total production of rice during 2022-23 is estimated to be at a record 1357.55 lakh tonnes.
• It is higher by 62.84 lakh tonnes than previous year’s Rice production of 1294.71 lakh tonnes .
• Procurement is on for the kharif marketing season (KMS) 2023-24.
• A quantity of 56.04 lakh metric tonnes of paddy has been procured from 8 states—Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal.
• Under the National Food Security Act, 2013, the monthly requirement (allocation) of rice is about 32 lakh tonnes.
• Taking into consideration other welfare schemes including ICDS, PM-Poshan, the monthly requirement is 35 lakh metric tonnes.

Rice Stocks in the Central Pool

• As per the Food Corporation of India, a stock of 221.87 lakh metric tonnes of rice is available in the Central Pool as on October 1, 2023.
• In addition to this, a stock of 138.36 lakh metric tonnes of unmilled paddy (equal to 92.70 lakh metric tonnes of rice) is also available in the Central Pool, taking the total rice stock to 314.57 lakh metric tonnes.