Indian rice exporters expect to face challenges due to policy risks, high prices in 2024

Indian rice exporters predict a challenging year in 2024, characterized by unclear policies and high local prices, which would impede the country’s efforts to normalize rice exports. S&P Global Commodity Insights states that the market is still being impacted by the Indian government’s 2023 actions, which included outlawing the export of non-Basmati white rice, taxing exports of parboiled rice twenty percent, and establishing a minimum export price of USD 950 per million tonnes (mt) for Basmati rice. Restrictions appear expected to last at least until the first half of 2024, despite worldwide Consequences and multi-year high prices. Rising local prices and the need to guarantee the nation had an adequate supply of rice led the Indian government to decide to limit exports. The majority of industry analysts predict that limitations won’t be loosened by the government before to the general election that is set for April–May 2024. The supply problem is further complicated by the decrease in rice output during the 2023–24 kharif season, which is caused by El Nino-induced dry weather.