In the last couple of days, many panic-stricken Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) have thronged grocery stores and supermarkets in the United States to hoard bags of rice. Videos of people jostling to buy sona masuri rice (a lightweight and aromatic medium-grain rice) and photos of long queues outside Indian stores became viral on social media. In order to control the chaos, many stores in the U.S. placed a limit on the sale of rice. Some even restricted sales to ‘one rice bag per family’ to deal with the unprecedented crowds.
This sudden rush followed the Indian government’s decision on July 20 to ban the export of non-basmati white rice to “ensure adequate availability in the Indian market and to allay the rise in prices in the domestic market.” It did not restrict the export of the other types of semi/wholly milled rice — basmati and parboiled rice.
The exported share of non-basmati white rice surpassed the share of basmati rice in the last two fiscal years (Chart 1). In FY23, India exported around 64 lakh tonnes of non-basmati white rice and close to 45 lakh tonnes of basmati rice. The most widely exported type was parboiled rice (78 lakh tonnes). Now, non-basmati white rice, which formed over a quarter of semi/wholly milled rice, has been taken off the market.
