Andhra rice millers stop exports

Move to help govt meet its PDS procurement needs

The Andhra Pradesh State Rice Millers Association has decided to stop rice exports until levy targets are completed to support the state in fulfilling procurement targets.

The rice exports to other states will be withheld till the end of this month and to other countries till January 15. "All rice exports from the state have been stopped since December 1,'' association state president Dwarampudi Bhaskara Reddy told the Business Standard.

"The state government could not supply even 5,000 tonne to the public distribution system in November in East Godavari district due to the shortage of rice stocks. The commissioner of civil supplies urged the rice millers to fulfil the levy targets for uninterrupted supply of rice to the public from the PDS. We have decided to first fulfil the levy targets and only then we will export. All the rice millers of the state have extended their support to our resolution,'' said Reddy.

The rice millers are under the obligation to supply 60 lakh tonne rice to the government as levy from 6,000 mills in the state.

However, the state received only six lakh tonne till the second week of December 2005. Even East Godavari district, which is known as the rice bowl in the state, was able to procure only 93,610 tonne till now of the 9.16 lakh tonne levy target in kharif and rabi.

The officials concerned are optimistic of fulfilling the levy targets as paddy yield is higher this time compared with the last year. The government gives permits to the rice millers to export as much rice as is supplied to the PDS system.

For example, if a rice miller supplies 100 quintals for PDS purpose, he is permitted to export an equal quantity.

East Godavari alone exports one rack i.e. 2,500 tonne to other states. A major share of this goes to Kerala.

Agriculture officials estimate a yield of 4,292 kilos per hectare this kharif season. Paddy has been cultivated in 2,24,444 hectares in the district this season.

"When the officials examined paddy crop in 146 plots in the district, they have come to the conclusion that each hectare would yield 4,292 kilos, which means a total production of 9.63 tonne," said I Ramakrishna Murthy, deputy director of agriculture.

The government has announced a minimum a support price of Rs 650 and Rs 620 per quintal for super fine and common varieties respectively. The rice millers should purchase paddy from the farmers at MSP without fail, a district civil supplies department official said.

"We are purchasing paddy at higher than MSP because of heavy demand. We are paying farmers Rs 465 for a bag of 75 kilos of paddy without collecting either brokerage or transportation charges from farmers. In fact, the paddy yield is not enough to meet the needs in the district, that's why the rice millers are purchasing from other districts and as well as other states. Regardless of this, we would like to extend our full cooperation to the government to fulfil its welfare commitments,'' Bhaskara Reddy said.