The Government has removed the $700 per tonne minimum export price (MEP) or floor price on basmati rice shipments. “Basmati rice can be exported without any minimum export price,” said a Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) notification.
Rice exporters had been lobbying for the removal of MEP on export of the aromatic rice as global prices had crashed early this year on bumper harvest. The Government had then lowered MEP to $ 700 a tonne from $ 900 a tonne to make it more competitive in the global market.
India is the largest producer of basmati rice. Its exports in 2011-12 stood at around 2.5 million tonnes, a growth of about 15 per cent over the previous year’s 2.18 million tonnes.