India says Bangladesh cutting rice import duty raised domestic prices by 10%

Bangladesh's recent cut in import duty of non-basmati rice has pushed up prices of the grain in India's domestic markets by ten percent in the last five days, and is causing a rush among Indian exporters to go for deals with the neighbouring country.

On June 22, Bangladesh came up with a notification that allows imports of non-basmati rice till October 31. This is for the first time that Bangladesh has started importing rice from India so early amidst apprehensions of a shortfall in production in the country due to floods in north and northeast. Usually, Bangladesh starts importing rice in September-October.

The pressure on the demand for rice in Bangladesh has grown as the Russia-Ukraine war and India's curbs on wheat exports have caused the drop in wheat imports while floods have harmed rice.

Prices of Indian non-basmati rice have risen to $360 per tonne from $350 per tonne in the global markets in the last five days following the news from Bangladesh came in, BV Krishna Rao, President of Rice Exporters Association in India, said, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Suraj Agarwal, chief executive officer, Tirupati Agri Trade, said, "Prices of rice have already gone up by 10 percent and are still rising. Bangladesh generally buys rice from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. In these three states, prices have shot up by 20 percent for the common variety of rice. The price rise in these three states have also left an impact on prices of rice in other regions where it has gone up by 10 percent."

Bangladesh's early buying of non-basmati rice is expected to boost Indian rice exports. According to the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics data, India had exported non-basmati rice worth USD 6.11 billion in 2021-22 as compared to USD 4.8 billion in FY21.

As Indian exporters eye rice deals with Bangladesh and buy up the crop, it has led to pressure on availability of the product in domestic market pushing up the prices, industry sources said.

India is the world's biggest rice consumer after China, and has a market share of more than 40% of the global rice trade.