Indian rice exporters barred from participating in WFP tender due to export ban

The United Nations has barred Indian exporters from participating in its rice procurement tender for the World Food Program (WFP) as the exporters have imposed several export bans on various types of rice in order to maintain local stocks and to control prices.

The US, European Union (EU) and Canada criticized the bans as unnecessary trade barriers.

But this time the UN has imposed restrictions on Indian exporters participating in their rice procurement tenders.

According to a report of Economic Times of India published on Wednesday, Indian rice exporters will not be able to participate in WFP rice procurement tenders due to this decision of the UN. WFP collects rice for distribution to hungry or food insecure areas of the world. This food grain is collected through tenders from different countries of the world.

“Due to India’s rice export ban, we are unable to accept rice from Indian sources,” WFP said in one of its tender documents.

India is the largest exporter of rice in the world. 40% of the world’s total rice exports are from this country.

In September 2022, India first banned the export of broken rice. India also banned the export of non-basmati white rice in July 2023.

In addition to this, the country imposed an export duty of 20% on the export of boiled rice.

India set a minimum export price of $1,200 per ton of basmati rice in August 2023.

In response to India’s ban on rice exports, the US, EU and Canada said such a measure would adversely affect countries that are heavily dependent on rice imports.

According to a report by the WFP in 2020, 345 million people in 82 countries of the world are suffering from extreme food insecurity. And another WFP report in October last year said that one in four people in Bangladesh are suffering from food insecurity. As a result, the international community is criticizing India’s ban on rice exports in such a situation of food insecurity in many countries across the world.

However, it has been shipping rice to friendly and neighbouring nations such as Indonesia, Senegal, Gambia, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Iran on a government-to-government basis.

This is being facilitated by the National Cooperative Exports Ltd (NCEL), a government export body which was set up under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act, 2002.

This article has been republished from The Dhaka Tribune.