India: Ban on rice exports lifted

HYDERABAD: A bumper rabi crop coupled with lack of godown space with both government agencies and millers has forced the state government to lift ban on export of raw rice for a period of two months.
Though the government claims that this measure has been taken with a view to ease the pressure on godowns to accommodate fresh rabi crop arrivals, rice millers in the state have termed the government's decision as a positive development. However, officials clarified that there would be a review every 15 days to assess the impact of permitting the export of raw rice.
The decision was taken by chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy at a high-level review meeting with civil supplies minister D Sridhar Babu, marketing minister Mukesh Goud, chief secretary S V Prasad, agricultural marketing principal secretary Ratna Kishore, agriculture principal secretary B Nagi Reddy, FCI zonal manager B Kalyan Chakravarthy, civil supplies corporation VC&MD Dinakar Babu, a representative of the railways and other officials at secretariat on Wednesday.
The meeting also decided to allow sale of boiled rice outside the state without any conditions. Earlier, millers were forced to sell two-thirds of the boiled rice in the state and only one-third outside the state. Sources said rice millers, mostly from Telangana were holding around 32 lakh MTs of parboiled rice stocks.
The development assumes significance as rice millers had previously exported lakhs of tonnes of superfine rice by misusing and exploiting the permission given for export of raw rice only for a month. Sources said an estimated 35 lakh tonnes of various varieties of superfine rice was available with rice millers now and there was tremendous scope for them to exploit the state government's decision.
The chief minister asked officials to prepare details about the procurement plan and godown space required to ensure minimum support price (MSP) for farmers. He assured to take up the matter of godown space with the Centre during his visit to New Delhi on Thursday.
Reddy asked officials of all departments concerned to co-ordinate effectively and ensure that farmers received MSP for their produce. "If any official certifies that farmers are given MSP without verifying it on the ground level, stringent action should be taken against him," he said.
The chief minister asked the railways to allot more rakes to the FCI for Andhra Pradesh for the months of May and June for movement of rice. He wanted the rakes to be provided for movement of at least 5 lakh MTs of rice per month.
Officials informed the chief minister that the total production of rice during 2010-11 (both rabi and kharif put together) was expected to be 140.65 lakh MTs, which showed an increase of 32.27 lakh MTs over 2009-10. Officials said FCI, state agencies, civil supples corporation and IKP groups opened a total of 1,187 purchase centres and procured 1,10,620 MTs this season.
Officials said in order to prevent distress sale by farmers, the paddy offered by farmers at MSP to IKP groups would be allowed to be kept on farmers' account at agriculture market committees on rent-free basis up to 90 days or till the payment is made to them in full.