Pak, India rice exports to rise: officials

HO CHI MINH CITY: India, the world's second-largest rice producer after China, is forecast to produce 102 million tonnes of rice in the 2011/2012 season, up around 3 percent from the previous season, an executive at a rice export company said on Friday.

The country, which returned to the market in September with a plan to ship 2 million tonnes of non-basmati rice by March 2012, has 5 million tonnes set aside for export, Chairman Karan Chanana of the New Delhi-based Amira group told Reuters.

Pakistan, the world's 12th largest producer, is forecast to export 4.5 million tonnes of both basmati and white rice next year, up 28.6 percent from 2011, said Director Fuad Hamid Garib of Karachi-based Garibsons (Pvt) Ltd Co.

"We have the parboiled rice at the same quality with Thai or Vietnamese rice, but the price is about $200 a tonne lower," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference.

Chanana said due to logistic problems, India could not ship all the 2 million tonnes by next March, a time-point set by the government.

Traders attending the conference said they were also doubtful over India's ability to handle rice export after the nation had suspended shipments in late 2007.

Chanana said his company has exported around 100,000 tonnes of rice since the lifting of the export ban, while the firm was working on more deals now. He declined to elaborate.

India was now offering parboiled rice and white rice at $440-$445 a tonne, well under the lowest level of $550 a tonne that Thai exporters who have stock could offer, said Korbsook Iamsuri, President of Thai Rice Exporters Association.

"We will follow Indian prices, if India reduces prices, Pakistan will follow," Garib from the Pakistani export firm said. He said Pakistani parboiled rice was offered at $470-$475 a tonne, compared with Thai variety of around $650 per tonne.

Pakistan's basmati rice export in 2012 is expected to remain stable at 1 million tonnes, while non-basmasti rice would rise to 3.5 million from 2.5 million tonnes to be shipped this year, he said.

Pakistan, where rice export is handled by the private sector, wanted to expand its export market to Indonesia, where the government only accepts rice supplies via government-to-government deals, Garib said.

"We want to send this message to the Indonesian government so that we can deal directly," he told international traders, government and industry officials at the rice conference.

Pakistan hopes to double its rice export revenue to $4 billion by 2015, including improving production by using new basmati seeds, he said.

Pakistan grows only one rice crop a year and production now faces water shortage, low organic matters in the soil and soil salinity, a slide in Garib's presentation to the conference showed.