India’s rice exports defy restrictions, hold steady in 2024

MUMBAI: India’s rice exports held steady in 2024 despite New Delhi’s export curbs, as record high premium basmati rice shipments offset a decline in overseas sales of non-basmati rice, government and industry officials told Reuters.

A steady flow of rice from the world’s biggest exporter should help bring down global rice prices and assist New Delhi in reducing stockpiles that have surged to a record high due to a bumper crop.

“Exports bounced back in the December quarter after exports restrictions were lifted and made up for the shortfall in the first half of the year,” said a government official, who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

In September and October 2024 India removed almost all of the curbs it had imposed on exports of non-basmati and premier basmati rice in July and August 2023. The country’s rice exports in 2024 stood at 17.8 million metric tons, marginally down from 17.86 million tons shipped a year earlier, the official said.

Basmati rice exports in 2024 surged 16.3 per cent to a record 5.7 million tonnes as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates increased buying despite a jump in prices, he said. Non-basmati rice exports eased 6.9 per cent to 12.1 million tonnes as record prices forced Bangladesh, Cameroon, Djibouti, Gambia to reduce purchases, he added.

India usually exports more rice than the combined shipments of the world’s next four largest exporters: Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and the United States. “We were expecting a drop of more than 20 per cent in rice exports in 2024, but strong demand in the December quarter surprised us. Exports were largely steady and will rise further in 2025,” said a Kolkata-based rice exporter. In 2022, India exported a record 22.27 million tonnes of rice, which accounted for more than 40 per cent of the world’s total rice exports of 55.4 million tonnes.