{"id":257878,"date":"2023-08-29T21:04:49","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T15:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=257878"},"modified":"2023-08-29T22:03:21","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T16:33:21","slug":"the-case-for-uniform-minimum-export-price-for-rice-without-basmati-distinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-case-for-uniform-minimum-export-price-for-rice-without-basmati-distinction\/","title":{"rendered":"The case for uniform minimum export price for rice, without basmati distinction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>&#8211; The post is based on the article <strong>\u201cThe case for uniform minimum export price for rice, without basmati distinction\u201d <\/strong>published in <strong>\u201cThe Indian Express\u201d <\/strong>on <strong>29th August 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- \u00a0Agriculture<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance:<\/strong> Agriculture pricing and marketing<\/p>\n<p><strong>News<\/strong>&#8211; The article explains the issues of recent government decisions on restricting the exports of wheat and rice.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What government statistics say about\u00a0 rice and wheat production?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>India achieved record-breaking levels of <strong>rice and wheat production<\/strong> in the previous year,<\/p>\n<p>As per data from the Agricultural Ministry, rice output was <strong>135.54 mt in 2022-23. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Wheat production reached <strong>112.74 mt in the fiscal year 2022-23.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are actions taken by the Indian government for restricting the exports of rice and wheat?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In May 2022, the government implemented a <strong>prohibition on the export of wheat<\/strong>. In June 2023, <strong>restrictions on stock holdings<\/strong> were imposed.<\/p>\n<p>In September, 2022, the<strong> export of broken rice<\/strong> was forbidden. A <strong>20% tariff<\/strong> was imposed on shipments of all<strong> non-parboiled white grains. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In July, 2023, the <strong>export of non-basmati white rice<\/strong> was entirely prohibited. Only <strong>parboiled non-basmati and basmati rice exports <\/strong>were permitted.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, a <strong>20% duty<\/strong> was introduced on all exports of <strong>parboiled non-basmati rice. <\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why is the Indian government putting restrictions on exports of rice and wheat?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The implementation of this <strong>minimum export price rul<\/strong>e aimed to prevent any potential <strong>illicit exports of non-basmati white rice<\/strong> disguised as basmati rice.<\/p>\n<p>The government&#8217;s aim has been to decrease o exports in order to enhance the <strong>supply of grain <\/strong>within the country.<\/p>\n<p>According to the official <strong>consumer price index<\/strong>,<strong> retail food inflation <\/strong>was 11.5% in July. Over the past three months, the <strong>cost of wheat flour<\/strong> has risen from Rs 30 to Rs 32 per kg.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the issues with the government initiative to limit the exports of rice and wheat?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Enforcement of limitations on exports can be evaded through <strong>inaccurate classification<\/strong>. In this instance, <strong>export of white non-basmati rice<\/strong> has taken place by utilizing the <strong>Harmonized System codes intended for parboiled and basmati rice. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are instances where <strong>basmati rice export agreements<\/strong> have been established at prices as low as<strong> $359 per tonne<\/strong>, even though <strong>parboiled ric<\/strong>e is being shipped out at <strong>$480 per tonne.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The majority of <strong>basmati rice exports<\/strong> are occurring within a <strong>range of $1,050 to $1,100 per tonne<\/strong> for the parboiled Pusa-1121 variety.<\/p>\n<p>The<strong> $1,200 Minimum Export Price <\/strong>is excessively high. Only <strong>steamed Pusa-1121 and 1718 rice <\/strong>are achieving prices of $1,200-1,300, in addition to the <strong>traditional premium basmati<\/strong> priced at $1,550 per tonne. These types account for just around <strong>15% of our basmati exports. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Way forward-<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The government should eliminate the <strong>differentiation between basmati and non-basmati rice. <\/strong>There can be a <strong>consistent MEP of $800-900 per tonne<\/strong> for all types of rice, whether basmati or parboiled, including white non-basmati.<\/p>\n<p>Implementing a uniform MEP of $800 per tonne would enable the export of all these <strong>premium rice types<\/strong> without compromising <strong>domestic food security. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This approach would not only benefit <strong>basmati farmers<\/strong>, but also protect those who cultivate other <strong>premium varieties <\/strong>not distributed through the<strong> Public Distribution System.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the government, this approach would eliminate concerns related to <strong>misclassification or unauthorized exports of non-basmati rice<\/strong> disguised as <strong>parboiled or basmati rice. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source&#8211; The post is based on the article \u201cThe case for uniform minimum export price for rice, without basmati distinction\u201d published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d on 29th August 2023. Syllabus: GS3- \u00a0Agriculture Relevance: Agriculture pricing and marketing News&#8211; The article explains the issues of recent government decisions on restricting the exports of wheat and rice.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-case-for-uniform-minimum-export-price-for-rice-without-basmati-distinction\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The case for uniform minimum export price for rice, without basmati distinction<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[218,216,10500],"class_list":["post-257878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-agriculture","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}