Rice prices down by up to 36% post-festive season

Rice prices have fallen by up to 36 per cent post-festive season as the arrivals of the kharif crop have increased due to a better yield this year. Prices of common variety non-basmati rice have fallen by 6 per cent, while special varieties of rice like Gobindobhog have fallen by 36 per cent since Diwali.

Basmati prices too have fallen by 6 per cent with the exporters trying to make headway into new markets like Japan and Indonesia as the supply to the US markets have fallen due to high tariffs.

Suraj Agarwal, CEO of RiceVilla, a rice exporting and marketing firm said "Prices of common varieties of non-basmati rice like Swarna have fallen by Rs 3 per kg post Diwali from Rs 36 per kg to Rs 33 per kg. Prices of miniket rice which had shown an upward trend during the festive season have also stabilised."

The rice trade said that for the next three to four months there is no chance of prices moving up. "There is an ample supply of paddy in the market," they said. According to the government figures, Kharif crop coverage this year has exceeded that of previous years, rising to more than 110 million hectares from the usual 109.5 million hectares in recent years, driven by increased acreage of paddy and maize, he said.

There has been a huge fall in prices of specialty rices like Gobindoghog. At present, the price of a kg of Gobindobhog rice is Rs 140 per kg, which is a sharp decline from Rs 220 per kg a fortnight ago. "IT will soon drop to Rs 100 per kg," Agarwal said.

Prices of the common variety of basmati rice - 1509 have corrected from Rs 85 per kg to Rs 80 per kg. The price fall augurs well from the Indian consumers ahead of the wedding season, when the demand for this variety goes up.

Satish Goel, president of All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) said that the basmati production has been good this year. Exports have shot up to 3.17 million tonnes in the first half of the current fiscal as compared to 2.72 million tonnes in the corresponding period of the previou year. "The high US tariff has impacted our business but we are looking at other nations to expand our export markets. We have already visited Japan and plans are afoot to make our headway into Indonesia and South Africa."

The AIREA president added that a meeting with the officials of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is slated this week on how to arrest the price fall of basmati at the farmgate level.