India—the world’s largest exporter of rice—banned all exports of “non-basmati white rice” late Thursday in an effort to keep domestic prices in check, raising fears it could further threaten global food security, which has already been impacted by Russia’s scrapping a key UN-brokered deal that allowed Ukrainian grains through the Black Sea.
People plant rice saplings at a water-logged rice field on the outskirts of Amritsar in northern ... [+]
India’s Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry said the move was undertaken to “ensure adequate availability” in the country and “allay the rise in prices in the domestic market.”
The ministry note also mentioned that rice prices have risen 11.5% over the past year and 3% over the past month in India.
India is the world’s largest exporter of rice, accounting for 40% of the world’s rice shipments, and the country exported a record 22.2 million tons in 2022.
Around half of India’s rice exports from 2022—10.3 million—were made up of non-basmati white rice.
The most severe impact of this ban is likely to be felt by India’s neighbors Bangladesh and Nepal, along with several African nations including Benin, Angola, Cameroon, Djibouti, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya—who are the major buyers of non-basmati rice according to Reuters.
Fears about the impact of El Nino on rice crops have also driven up global prices for the grain to a two-year high, analytics firm Gro Intelligence reported.
13.9%. That is how much the Food and Agriculture Organization’s All Rice Price Index—which tracks global rice prices—has risen in the past 12 months, according to data shared by the UN body.