Decision on exporting rice, wheat this week

An empowered group of ministers (eGoM) is expected to meet soon to take a call on the exports of non-basmati rice and wheat.

While the eGoM is to decide on the additional quantity of exports of non-basmati rice, it is expected to also arrive at the quantity of wheat that could be allowed for export.

Officials said the group could meet sometime this week depending upon the availability of all the members. “There is a possibility that the government allows export of 2 million tonnes of wheat and additional 2 million tonnes of non-basmati rice,” a senior official said.

A half of the 2 million tonnes rice, officials said, could be raw rice; the rest par-boiled rice.

Earlier, the government had allowed the export of 1 million tonnes of non-basmati rice because of a bumper harvest in 2010-2011 crop marketing season. It had also taken an ‘in principle’ decision to allow export of wheat, but left it for the finalisation part with the commerce ministry.

Exports of rice have been caught in a legal tangle following objections raised by exporters over the process of inviting bids and also the minimum export price fixed by the commerce ministry.

Down south, rice millers from Andhra Pradesh have made a strong pitch to allow more exports of rice as the bumper harvest could create an acute storage crisis. The procurement of rice for the coming crop marketing season is expected to start from October onwards.

As on August 1, the government had more than 61 million tonnes of grains in its warehouses, almost double the quantity required under buffer norms and strategic reserve needs.

The requirement under buffer norms and strategic reserve is around 12 million tonnes of rice and 20 million tonnes of wheat.

The exports, if allowed, will only be for private traders. Also, no grain will be exported from the government account.