The impact of India's rice export ban
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2023
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In an effort to insulate domestic prices, India has banned exports of non basmati white rice - its largest rice category.
We ask what the impact of this is on large importing countries.
A rice mill owner in Northern Nigeria tells us how the country is expanding its domestic rice production as a result of India’s curb, and we hear from a retailer in the UAE about the purchasing restriction it placed on customers as soon as the announcement was made.
We look at whether other countries can meet the shortfall of rice in global supply and what this could mean for global food security.
Presenter: Devina Gupta Producer: Amber Mehmood
Transcript
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| 0:24.1 | Hello and Namaste. |
| 0:29.9 | Welcome to Business Daily on the BBC World Service with me, Divina Gupta. |
| 0:34.5 | Today we are talking about India's rice export ban. |
| 0:41.3 | The world's most populous country has been struggling to make rice more affordable to feed its growing population. |
| 0:47.3 | We have very less money to spend. It's very difficult for us to stretch our money through the month. So now it has taken a tough stand to curb the export of rice. |
| 0:53.3 | In July this year, it has banned seal of all non-Basmati variety of rice outside the country. |
| 1:00.8 | Now, given that India is the world's largest rice exporter, |
| 1:04.7 | this move has a ripple effect on many other countries' economies. |
| 1:10.0 | Most families in Nigeria, they buy 50 kG bags of rice, |
| 1:14.3 | but today the minimum wage in Nigeria is 30,000, |
| 1:17.7 | and a bag of rice is higher than the minimum wage. |
| 1:19.7 | When the rice become banned from India, |
| 1:23.7 | the people started buying the big quantity. |
| 1:26.5 | So what we've done, we've given for five days, five kage two packets per person. |
| 1:31.9 | So at least everybody should get it. |
| 1:34.6 | But for the other rice producing countries, this is turning out to be a good opportunity. |
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