India's basmati rice exports likely to rise by 30% in FY' 10

April 06, 2010

NEW DELHI, -- India's basmati rice exports are likely to have increased by 30 per cent to two million tonnes in fiscal 2009-10 as compared to previous year, Asia Pulse news service reported.

This is mainly due to higher demand for the PUSA 1121 variety which was included in the basmati category in October 2008.

Basmati rice exports may have totalled to two million tonnes in the 2009-10 fiscal," a senior official with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) said.

The country had shipped 1.5 million tonnes of basmati rice in the previous year mainly to the UAE, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Europe and the US, he said.

APEDA noted that the total of basmati rice exports was arrived at after taking into account the registration orders as the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS) has not yet compiled the entire data.

The DGCIS has maintained basmati rice exports data for April-November period of the 2009-10 fiscal, which stands at 1.2 million tonnes, it said.

The country is estimated to have produced 3.5 million tonnes of basmati rice in FY'10, against three million tonnes in the previous year, according to APEDA.

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