Basmati rice to remain costlier this year on lower output estimates

The prices of basmati paddy and rice are likely to remain firm this year due to estimates of lower output following erratic monsoon rainfalls in its major growing regions.
Data compiled by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) showed India’s cumulative rainfalls this season was 5 per cent lower than the long period average (LPA) with the northwest India recorded a massive 11 per cent less rainfalls this year til September 20. According to industry sources, major basmati paddy growing area received much lower than needed rainfalls this season which not only hit overall sowing area but also plants in the field.

The price increase might hurt exports of this aromatic rice which remained a favourable choice for consumers in Iran, Saudi Arabia and European countries.
“During the current season, there has been rainfall deficit in the key basmati rice producing states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana over the previous year’s monsoon season till mid-September 2017 as well as lower water reservoir levels in Uttar Pradesh. These factors can translate into lower paddy production in the current crop season, and thus the paddy prices are likely to open firm in the oncoming procurement season,” said Deepak Jotwani, Assistant Vice President, Icra.

Meanwhile, India’s basmati rice exports have witnessed a rebound in the current fiscal with Q1 FY18 registering a 32 per cent growth in exports contributed by 25 per cent increase in realisations and 7 per cent increase in volumes. This comes after a three year consecutive decline in basmati exports till FY2017 (Rs 21,605 crore). In the past, despite the volumes holding firm, the exports have been adversely impacted by pressure on realisations (from peak of Rs 77,988 a tonne in FY2014 to Rs 54,011 a tonne in FY2017), driven by lower demand in the global market as well as lower paddy prices over the procurement seasons of FY2015 and FY2016.

Gurnam Arora, Joint Managing Director, Kohinoor Foods Ltd, said, “Basmati rice is likely to remain firm this year on lower output estimates.”

An Icra report said that basmati rice exports in the current fiscal have been encouraging, especially driven by demand from Iran. The Middle Eastern countries are the biggest importers; and also a source of volatility in demand. Demand from Iran, the second largest importer has been fairly volatile, primarily on account of import bans imposed from time to time. In Q1FY2018, Iran has been the primary contributor to growth in industry exports – contributing around 40 per cent to the total. However, from August 2017, Iran has again discontinued importing Basmati rice from India.Resumption of imports by Iran, which is anticipated around the procurement season, would be critical for the overall demand for Basmati rice. Any delay in the same could dampen the paddy procurement in the upcoming season as well as subdue the exports outlook for H2FY2018 and FY2019. This is especially material in the light of decline in volume sales from other key market - Saudi Arabia (13 per cent of total exports in Q1FY2018 as against 20 per cent in FY2017).

On the supply side, during the last procurement season of October-December 2016, basmati paddy prices had firmed up by 20-25 per cent across varieties, on the back of relatively lower production.

Meanwhile, the demand concerns in the form of Iran import ban and sluggishness from other key geographies would be overcome and export volumes in FY2018 to be around 4.1 million tonnes (4 per cent higher than FY2017). In addition, higher paddy prices in the last procurement season and likelihood of firm prices in the upcoming procurement season are expected to push up the average realisations in FY2018. As a result, export value is expected to grow to around Rs 26,000 crores in FY2018, a jump of 21 per cent over FY2017.

Meanwhile, India’s basmati rice output is estimated to have declined by over 18 per cent to eight million tonnes (mt) for 2016-17, compared to 9.8 mt the previous year.

Basmati rice

India exports AYUSH products to 100 countries, ties up with US on R&D

India has exported AYUSH products, including extracts of medicinal herbs, to about 100 countries in the last three years with a total value in excess of $1,100 million, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH, Shripad Yesso Naik said in a written reply to a question in parliament on Friday.

India’s exports included extracts of medicinal herbs, Ayurveda medicines, dietary supplements, nutraceuticals and herbal supplements. The data presented by the minister show a gradually increase of AYUSH products in foreign countries.

 


The minister also informed that India has for the first time successfully engaged with United States in the field of traditional medicine.
An India-US workshop on traditional medicine with special focus on cancer was organised on 3-4 March, 2016 at New Delhi. A US team comprising of experts from National Cancer Institute (NCI) took part in the two-day exhaustive deliberations that have resulted into significant leads.

“A productive bilateral dialogue with Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) team is ongoing,” Naik said.

Giving details of the drug standardisation, the minister said the Ministry of AYUSH has set-up Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) as the apex body for formulation and development of Ayurvedic medicines for various diseases.

As many as 88 singles drugs and 33 compound formulations were carried out under drug standardisation in the year 2016-17, according to the minister.

Why It’s Important for India to Trade With Latin America

Many believe that trading with Latin America is expensive and therefore should not be a priority. But statistics tell a different story.

For those who think that Latin America is too far and the cost of freight too high, and therefore that the region should be less important for India’s trade, here is an eye opener from the 2016-17 (April-March) statistics of the commerce ministry of India.

In 2016-17, India exported more to Mexico ($3.5 billion) than to neighbours such as Thailand ($3.1 billion), Myanmar ($1.7 billion) and Iran ($2.4 billion) or traditional trade partners Russia ($1.9 billion) and Canada ($2 billion).

India’s exports to Colombia ($787 million) were more than the exports to some West European countries such as Austria, Ireland and Scandinavian countries.

Guatemala imported more from India ($243 million) than some Central Asian and East European countries.
India’s trade with the Dominican Republic ($900 million) was more than the trade with Portugal, Greece and some other European countries.

For those who think that it is very difficult for India to compete with Chinese exports, here is another piece of information:
India beat China in export of pharmaceuticals to Latin America. India’s exports were $651 million in comparison to China’s $404 million in 2016. In fact, in the last five years, India has been exporting more pharma to Latin America than China. What is even more interesting is the fact that India imports a bulk of its raw materials from China, converts them into finished formulations and exports them.
Trade in 2016-17

India’s trade with Latin America in 2016-17 was $30 billion, of which export was $10.4 billion and imports $19.6 billion. The trade has gone up slightly from $29.7 billion in 2015-16 but is down from $43 billion in 2014-15. The main reasons for the decrease in trade are the fall in commodity prices imported by India from Latin America and the recession of the region in 2015 and 2016. India’s import of crude oil from the region fell to $9.5 billion in 2016-17 from $20 billion in 2014-15, thanks to the decrease in oil prices from over $100 dollars to less $50. The volume of crude imports had, in fact, increased.

In 2016-17, Brazil was the largest trading partner at $6.5 billion, followed by Mexico ($6.4 billion), Venezuela ($5.6 billion), Argentina ($3 billion), Chile ($1.9 billion), Peru ($1.8 billion), Colombia ($1.4 billion) and the Dominican Republic ($900 million).

India’s exports

Mexico was the largest destination of India’s export, valued at $3.5 billion, followed by Brazil ($2.4 billion), Colombia ($787 million), Peru ($699 million), Chile ($676 million) and Argentina ($512 million). Export to Mexico has increased by 21% from last year, while it declined in the case of the other large markets such as Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Chile.

Latin America was the leading destination of India’s vehicle exports with a share of 23% of India’s global exports. Mexico continued to be the main buyer of Indian cars with $1.6 billion accounting for 25% of India’s global exports. Vehicle exports to Mexico have been steadily increasing in the last three years and the increase from last year was an impressive 39%. Colombia, which was the number one buyer of Indian motorcycles came down to the third rank in 2016-17 with imports of $185 million, after Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In 2016-17 Latin America imported motorcycles worth $354 million from India in 2016-17, which was 25% of India’s exports to the world.
Imports

Major sources of imports were: Venezuela ($5.5 billion), Brazil ($4.1 billion), Mexico ($2.9 billion), Argentina ($2.5 billion), Chile ($1.2 billion), Peru ($1 billion), Dominican Republic ($675 million) and Colombia ($594 million).

The main imports were crude oil ($9.5 billion), vegetable oil ($2.9 billion), gold and precious stones ($1.7 billion), copper ($1.7 billion), raw sugar ($1 billion) and wood ($309 million). The revenue through sugar imports is generated by mainly by refining and re-exporting to other countries.

The imports are set to increase given the growing demand for these items in India, driven by the increasing population and consumption as well as the high economic growth rate.

Outlook for 2017-18

This trade should go up next year, with the recovery of the economies of the region in 2017. The GDP of Latin America had shrunk by 1.1% in 2015 and 0.5% in 2016. The GDP is expected to grow by 1.1% in 2017, helped by the recovery of global commodity prices. Except Venezuela, all the countries of the region have shown positive GDP growth. Even Brazil, which continues to suffer from political crisis, has turned around with positive growth this year.

Latin America will continue to contribute to India’s energy security with the supply of crude oil. The region has large reserves and the capacity to increase production and exports to meet the increasing crude imports from India. South America has started supplying pulses, which India has been importing more and more with the growing gap between consumption and domestic production.

The collapse of the Trans Pacific Partnership following the withdrawal of the US is good for India. The TPP had extra clauses for patent protection, going beyond the WTO standards, and this would have affected India’s generic medicine exports to Latin America.

The expanded Preferential Trade Agreement signed by Chile and India in 2016 has come into force from May 2017. Peru and India have agreed to start negotiations for a free/preferential trade agreement and this should also help in boosting the trade with the region.

Indian exporters should focus on the markets in the Pacific Alliance (Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile) whose economies are growing more and whose trade policies are more stable, transparent and predictable, with the least protectionism.

Latin Americans have started paying more attention to India, especially after arrogant and insulting remarks from Donald Trump against Mexicans and his protectionist trade policies. They also want to reduce the over-dependence on China, which has used its dominance to hurt the region’s industries and given rise to other risks. They attach importance to India, which has overtaken China in terms of GDP growth rate, and see India as a non-threatening trade partner in the long term.

India’s exports could be doubled to $20 billion in the next five years if exporters target Latin America more seriously and systematically.

Search live rice export import data online easily

Rice plays important role in Indian agriculture products. In terms of rice production India ranks second position all over the world. In India, rice is grown in the eastern and western shoreline areas, Northeast India.Major Importing Countries of Non Basmati Rice are  Saudi Arabia,    China, UAE, USA, United Kingdom,    Malaysia, Japan,    France.
India is the largest rice exporting country and neighboring China is the largest rice importing country in the world as of 2016/17. Only five countries are the major rice exporters are Thailand, Vietnam, China, the US, and India. The three top exporters were Thailand, Vietnam, and India. By 2012, India became the world’s top rice exporter while Thailand slipped to the third position after Vietnam. The three countries accounted for 70% of the world’s rice exports.The primary variety of rice exported by India is the aromatic Basmati  rice variety. Thailand and Vietnam specialize in the export of the Jasmine variety of rice.the major importers of rice in the world are China, Nigeria, the European Union, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines. China leads the world's countries in rice imports by importing 5,000,000 metric tons of rice in 2016/17.

Rice Exports from India |   Rice Export Import Directory List

India’s export grew by 10% in Q1FY18

In the Q1FY18, the export grew by 10.57% to USD 72.21 billion and the import increased by 32.78% to USD 112.2 billion and the trade deficit stood at USD 40 billion.
Export from India soared by 4.39% to USD 23.56 billion in June as shipments of chemicals, engineering and marine products increased, reported a statement released by the Commerce Ministry on Friday.

On the other hand, India import grew from USD 30.68 billion in June of the previous year to USD 36.52 billion in June 2017, showing an increase of 19% due to an increase in inward shipments of oil and gold.

An increase in imports shot up the trade deficit of the country from USD 8.11 billion in June 2016 to USD 12.96 billion in the June 2017, as per the released official data.
Import of gold grew to USD 2.45 billion in the month under review against USD 1.20 billion in the same month of the previous year.

While, the oil import rose by 12.04% to USD 8.12 billion in the June 2017, compared to same period last year.

In the Q1FY18, the export grew by 10.57% to USD 72.21 billion and the import increased by 32.78% to USD 112.2 billion and the trade deficit stood at USD 40 billion.