Prominent Indian grocery stores in major US cities, such as Texas, Michigan, and New Jersey, are witnessing crowds, primarily from the Telugu community…reports Asian Lite News
The Indian government’s recent decision to ban the export of non-basmati rice has sparked a hoarding frenzy among Indian-Americans in the United States. Social media is abuzz with tweets about a “panic buy” of white rice as people rush to stock up.
Interestingly, even Basmati rice, which is not covered by the ban, is also being hoarded by some. It appears that Indian-Americans might be mistakenly assuming that Basmati rice is also prohibited, or they could be taking a precautionary approach, fearing a potential ban on Basmati rice in the future. As a result, black marketing of Basmati rice has emerged, leading to inflated prices.
Prominent Indian grocery stores in major US cities, such as Texas, Michigan, and New Jersey, are witnessing crowds, primarily from the Telugu community. In response to the high demand, these stores have implemented restrictions, limiting sales to one rice bag per customer.
The central government on Thursday amended the rice export norms putting the non-basmati white rice in “prohibited” category.
The export policy relating to non-basmati white rice (Semi-milled or wholly milled rice, whether or not polished or glazed: Other) has been revised from “free” to “prohibited” and it has come into force immediately, a Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) notification said. However, Directorate General of Foreign Trade said exports of such variety of rice will be permitted under certain conditions where loading “has commenced before the issue of notification and where the shipping bill is filed and vessels have already berthed or arrived and anchored in Indian ports and their rotation number has been allocated before this notification”.
The approval of loading in such vessels will be issued only after confirmation by the concerned port authorities regarding anchoring/berthing of the ship for loading of Non-basmati rice prior to the Notification.
Also, export will be allowed on the basis of permission granted by the government to other countries to meet their food security needs and based on the request of their government.
West African country Benin is one of the major importers of non-basmati rice from India. Other destination countries are Nepal, Bangladesh, China, Cote D’ Ivoire, Togo, Senegal, Guinea, Vietnam, Djibouti, Madagascar, Cameroon Somalia, Malaysia, Liberia, and UAE.
India in September 2022 banned the exports of broken rice and imposed a 20 per cent duty on exports of non-Basmati rice, except for parboiled rice amid concerns about overestimated low production due to a fall in area under the paddy crop. It later lifted the ban in November. (with inputs from agencies)
