Subhechcha Ganguly 
India, the world’s largest exporter of the grain, tried to increase supplies and stabilise local prices on Thursday after planting was hampered by below-average monsoon rainfall by banning the export of broken rice and imposing a 20% duty on exports of various grades of the grain.In a notification dated September 8, 2022, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) stated that the export policy for broken rice had been changed from “Free” to “Prohibited”.The announcement is effective beginning September 9, 2022.
It also stated that the provisions of the transitional arrangement under the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020 shall not apply to this notification. Consignments that were loaded onto ships with broken rice before this notification, where the shipping bill was filed, the vessels had already berthed or arrived and anchored in Indian ports, and where their rotation number had been assigned before this order, will be permitted for export during this time.
Exports will also be permitted, it said, if the shipment was turned over to customs prior to this notification and was registered in their database.
Only after receiving confirmation from the relevant port authorities regarding the ship’s anchoring or berthing for the purpose of loading broken rice prior to notification will the approval for loading in such vessels be given. In 2021, India exported a record 21.5 million tonnes of rice, surpassing the combined exports of the following four countries: Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, and the United States. According to a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading firm, India has been the world’s cheapest rice supplier by a wide margin, protecting African nations like Nigeria, Benin, and Cameroon to some extent from a rise in the price of wheat and corn.
A total of 1.1 million tonnes of broken rice were purchased by China in 2021, while human consumption was also purchased by African nations like Senegal and Djibouti. The export of rice by India to more than 150 nations puts upward pressure on food prices, which are already rising as a result of the drought, heat waves, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
