In normal circumstances, this should have resulted in a degree of price buoyancy in domestic markets, and discouraged exports. As a result, the exports to production ratio for rice in India rose from 2.4 per cent in 2009-10 to 6.8 per cent in 2011-12 and 9.6 per cent in 2012-13, after which it has fluctuated between 9.9 and 11.3 per cent. India’s share in world exports in recent years (2014-18) has stayed at 25-26 per cent, Thailand’s has fluctuated between 22 and 25 per cent, and Vietnam’s between 13 and 16 per cent. The increase in non-basmati exports occurred despite the fact that the enhanced pledging scheme in Thailand was suspended in early 2014, that production in India did not rise much till 2016-17, having fluctuated between 104 and 107 million tonnes between 2011-16, before rising to 110 and 113 million tonnes in the next two years, and that Vietnam has been a third important player in world markets. Exports of basmati rice in those two years stood at 2.3 and 3.2 million tonnes respectively (Chart 1). As opposed to exports of around 1,00,000 tonnes of those varieties in 2010-11, exports soared to 4 million tonnes in 2011-12. India was a major beneficiary, recording a sharp increase in exports of non-basmati varieties. The consequent increase in domestic prices obviously reduced the incentive to sell in export markets rather than to the government or in the local market. The second was a decision of the then Thai government under Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, taken in the same year, to favour farmers by strengthening a Rice Pledging Scheme under which it promised to procure unlimited stocks at an enhanced price that reflected a 50 per cent increase over 2010. The first was the government’s decision in February 2011 to lift a four-year ban on exports of non-basmati varieties of rice, paving the way for a rise in exports of those varieties. India emerged the world’s largest rice exporter in 2011-12, displacing Thailand from its leadership position.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |