India may lift rice export ban this year

Traders fear Pakistan may gain their market share

DUBAI: India should be able to lift the ban on non-basmati rice exports this year as a bumper crop is expected due to a positive outlook on monsoon rain, traders told Reuters on Tuesday.

Global rice trade is estimated at around 30 million tons, out of which India potentially supplies 25.3 million tons, almost meeting the world’s rice demand for a year, traders said on the sidelines of an industry conference in Dubai.

Some Indian traders are concerned that if the government fails to lift the ban this year Pakistan might gain a larger market share as most of the country’s crop is exported.

“The government has to hurry up and lift the export ban because right now we have Pakistan competing and they are gaining on what used to be India’s market share,” said Ashutosh Sharma, Director of Duli Sons, a Mumbai-based rice trading firm.

India, the world’s second largest exporter of rice after Thailand, banned exports of non-basmati rice in 2008, as high prices of the grain put pressure on domestic supplies.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2010.