India to export rice to Mauritius & Bhutan in an exception for friends
NEW DELHI : India will supply 14,000 tonnes of non-basmati rice this year to Mauritius and 79,000 tonnes to Bhutan under humanitarian operations, making an exception for two key diplomatic partners. The decision has been taken after India received requests from both the nations to exempt the export prohibition on non-basmati rice, two government officials aware of the matter said. Mint on 20 August reported that after the UN World Food Programme, and three nations—Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines—had appealed to New Delhi to resume rice exports to their nations following India’s decision to suspend non-basmati white rice shipments to check prices effective from 20 July.
Bhutan requested India to allow rice exports after India’s ban on shipments of non-basmati rice caused global rice prices to rise. Bhutan in late July made a diplomatic request for rice shipments of up to 90,000 tonnes. Similarly, a request from the Mauritius to exempt it from the prohibition for a supply of up to 14,000 tonnes was also received earlier this month.
“Consignments of 60 containers carrying about 1,500 tonnes of non-basmati rice were due to sail on 19 August from Mundra port (in Gujarat). After the clearance, the containers will reach Mauritius in the first week of September before their rice stocks exhaust on 15 September. A total requirement of 14,000 tonnes of non-basmati rice is to be imported from India this year," one of the government officials said.
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