Press Trust Of India / New Delhi Mar 16, 2009, 00:16 IST
World Food Programme (WFP), the food aid agency of the United Nations, saved around $43 million by procuring Indian rice at a lower price than the market last year.
“WFP was able to feed many more hungry people in 2008, thanks to India’s willingness to sell rice to us at well below the market rate. We were able to save around $43 million,” the agency’s Food Procurement Chief Nicole Menage said on its website.
India, which imposed export restrictions on non-basmati rice to contain inflation, sells rice to the needy countries on humanitarian grounds. Praising India for “humanitarian exception”, WFP said that the Indian government granted the exception for humanitarian assistance despite the extensive export restrictions put in place as a result of high food prices.
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