By P. Vijian, NNN-Bernama,
Mumbai : India, the world’s second largest rice producer, will wait until its summer crop is harvested before deciding on Malaysia’s request for purchase of rice to build up its grains stockpile.
Millions of Indian farmers plant the summer crop in June and July when the monsoon sets in and harvest in October — yielding nearly 90 million tonnes during the season.
“We will consider your request after three months but now you can take our Basmati rice. We have a gap of three million tonnes (of normal rice).
“Alhough we are a little tight this year, in the coming season probably the situation may change. Then we can fulfill your request,” India’s Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told a Malaysian delegation.
India needs 27 million tonnes of rice a year to feed its 1.2 billion people and has banned rice exports to ensure adequate grains at home, especially when a global rice shortage became imminent this year.
India used to export about four million tonnes of non-Basmati rice and one million tonnes of the costly aromatic Basmati grains prior to the ban.
The price of rice, the staple diet of Asia, has spiralled since last year, amid shrinking global supply due to poor harvest, surging demand from rice-importing countries because of population growth and hoarding by traders.
Asian farmers supply nearly three-quarters of the world’s rice but governments, like in Cambodia, India and Vietnam, have tightened exports though some have relaxed their ban in recent weeks.
Malaysia wants to build a rice stockpile as food security. It has 72 per cent self-sufficiency and imports 30 per cent of its needs.
Thailand has agreed to a Malaysian request to purchase 500,000 tonnes of rice.
Malaysian Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Peter Chin Fah Kui, who was in Mumbai to attend the Malaysia Palm Oil Trade Fair and Seminar, had asked if India could supply the grains.