While Thailand and Vietnam don’t have enough inventories to fill the shortfall, African buyers would be most affected by India’s decision, Rao said, adding that many countries will request New Delhi resume shipments. “The sudden ban on exports would be very painful for the buyers, who can’t replace the shipments from any other country,” Rao said. Global prices are already hovering at their highest level in 11 years. Rice is a staple for more than 3 billion people, and nearly 90% of the water-intensive crop is produced in Asia, where the El Nino weather pattern usually brings lower rainfall. “India would disrupt the global rice market with far greater velocity than Ukraine did in the wheat market with Russia’s invasion,” BV Krishna Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association, told Reuters. But low inventories mean that any cut in its shipments will push up food prices already driven higher by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and erratic weather. India accounts for more than 40% of world rice exports, which amounted to 55.4 million tonnes in 2022. Retail rice prices have risen 11.5% over the past year and 3% over the past month, it added. “In order to ensure adequate availability of non-basmati white rice in the Indian market and to allay the rise in prices in the domestic market, the government of India has amended the export policy of above variety,” a government statement said. And while heavy rains since the last week of June have erased the shortfall, they have caused significant damage to crops. The late arrival of the monsoon led to a large rain deficit up to mid-June. NEW DELHI: India has prohibited the export of non-basmati white rice with immediate effect, according to a government notice on Thursday, after a late start to seasonal monsoon rains hurt the crop and raised fears of a production shortfall.
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