India rises to the occasion as global rice stock runs short

By Mahua Venkatesh New Delhi, Jan 9 : Indias contribution in maintaining global food security is rising rapidly as it expands its rice exports to various countries amid the Covid-19 pandemic crisis that impacted crop production and supplies.
Competitive pricing, high production and falling outbound shipment from other key rice exporting countries including Thailand and Vietnam have led to increased dependence on India for the supply of the critical staple food grain.
“Rice production in India has been higher this year and we have enough stocks to ensure that we meet domestic demands including the quantum required for the public distribution system, therefore we are in a position to export more. Export demand from various countries has also increased,” Vinod Kaul, executive director, All India Rice Exporters’ Association.
India’s rice exports have already recorded a whopping growth of 70 per cent to touch 7.5 million tonne during the first six months of the current financial year. This is primarily due to the doubling of the non-basmati rice exports supported by healthy demand from countries in Africa and south-east Asia.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) noted that India’s rice production could hit a record high as the crop benefitted from monsoon that supported increased plantings and good yields, World-Grain, a platform collating data and information on grain, four and weed said.
According to official data, India’s total food grain production was estimated at a record 295.67 million tonnes in the 2019-20 — 10.46 million tonnes higher compared to the previous year. When it comes to food grain production, India is second only to China in the Asia Pacific region, data collation portal statista.com revealed.