Europe buyers skip India, buy basmati from Pakistan: The News

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

NEW DELHI: European traders have bought 80,000 tonnes of basmati rice from Pakistan in the last 10-15 days, sidestepping India’s new season crop because of higher prices, a senior industry official said on Tuesday.Gurnam Arora, joint managing director of Kohinoor Foods and former president of the All India Rice Exporters Association, told Reuters Indian exporters lost out largely because of an export duty of $200 a tonne imposed in April.

He said Indian basmati rice was quoting between $1,400 to $1,500 per tonne, about $400 to $500 above Pakistani prices.“Traditionally, our rice is usually priced about $200 more than the Pakistani rice,” he said. “We have requested the government to remove the export tax as Pakistan is eating into our share.”“There is no sense in this duty,” Arora said, adding that Indian rice stocks were comfortable.India had also banned the export of non-basmati rice in April.The country exported about 1.5 million tonnes of basmati rice in the year to March 31, 2008, out of total exports of 5.5 million tonnes of rice.

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