India raises purchase price of rice by 3%, lowest increase in five years
India has raised the price at which it will buy the new-season common rice paddy variety from local farmers by 3%, the lowest increase in five years, as New Delhi struggles to manage overflowing granaries after last year's record harvest.
India is the world's second-largest producer of rice and the biggest exporter in the world with a market share of more than 40%.
For the common grade of rice paddy, the government has fixed the support, or guaranteed price at 2,369 rupees ($27.76) per 100 kg (220.46 lb), up from 2,300 rupees last year, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
Last year, India raised the rice paddy purchase price by 5.4%.
The small rise in the support price will help exporters remain competitive in the world market against rivals such as Thailand and Vietnam, B.V. Krishna Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association told Reuters.
Every year authorities raise the support price of staples such as rice and wheat to build stockpiles to run the largest food welfare programme in the world, providing access to free grains for those most in need.
But rice stocks, including unmilled rice paddy, in government warehouses totalled 59.5 million tons on May 1, more than four times a government target.
The government is sitting on excess rice stocks and struggling to sell them, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house.
"It doesn't want a big spike in production since that would mess things up. It's hoping farmers switch to other crops instead," the dealer said.
Rice yields are affected by seasonal monsoon rainfall as rice is a water intensive crop. India's weather department has forecast above-average monsoon rainfall for the second straight year in 2025.
India also raised the cotton purchase price by 8.3% to 7,710 rupees per 100 kg and the soybean price by 8.9% to 5,328 rupees per 100 kg.
(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav and Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Sudipto Ganguly and Rachna Uppal)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Khaleej Times
an hour ago
- Khaleej Times
Saudi crude oil supply to China to dip in July, sources say
Saudi Arabia's crude oil supply to China is set to dip slightly in July, trade sources said on Tuesday, but still strong for a third straight month as the OPEC leader regains its market share supplying the world's top crude importer. State oil firm Saudi Aramco will ship about 47 million barrels to China in July, a tally of allocations to Chinese refiners showed, 1 million barrels less than June's allotted volume. State refiners Sinopec, PetroChina and Aramco's joint venture Fujian refinery will be receiving more crude in July, while the allocation for independent refiners Rongsheng Petrochemical, Hengli Petrochemical and Shenghong Petrochemical will dip, the sources said. Saudi Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The robust Saudi supply comes after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, known as OPEC+, agreed to hike output in July by 411,000 barrels per day for a third consecutive month. Since April, the OPEC+ eight have now made or announced increases totalling 1.37 million bpd, or 62% of the 2.2 million bpd they aim to add back to the market.
Arabian Business
an hour ago
- Arabian Business
Energy
Petrochem founder Yogesh Mehta reflects on a life built from hardship, a company forged from belief, and the handover to a new generation. This is a story about business. But more than that – it's a story about what it means to live well
The National
5 hours ago
- The National
World Bank lowers global growth forecast on tariff war
The global economy is set to suffer the consequences of heightened trade tension and policy uncertainty, with the World Bank estimating the pace of growth to fall to the slowest level since 2008 outside of global recessions. The Washington-based multilateral lender projects world economy to expand 2.3 per cent this year, about half a percentage point lower than the estimates at the start of the year, it said in its latest Global Economic Prospects report. The turmoil caused by Washington's bid to levy historic tariffs on its global trade has resulted in 'growth forecasts being cut in nearly 70 per cent of all economies – across all regions and income groups', the lender said on Tuesday. Global growth is projected to slow to 2.3 per cent this year, about half a percentage point lower than the rate that had been expected at the start of the year. A global recession is not expected. Nevertheless, if forecasts for the next two years materialise, average global growth in the first seven years of the 2020s will be the slowest of any decade since the 1960s. 'Outside of Asia, the developing world is becoming a development-free zone,' World Bank Group's chief economist Indermit Gill said. Trending down for three decades Growth in developing economies has been ratcheting down for three decades – from 6 per cent annually in the 2000s to less than 4 per cent in the 2020s. 'That tracks the trajectory of growth in global trade, which has fallen from an average of 5 per cent in the 2000s to … less than 3 per cent in the 2020s. Investment growth has also slowed, but debt has climbed to record levels,' Mr Gill added. The World Bank forecast for the global output is even more conservative than that of the International Monetary Fund's, which in April, slashed its growth projections on tariffs hitting 100-year highs. The IMF also warned that trade tension between the world's two largest economies and Europe would further slow growth. The fund lowered its 2025 global growth forecast by 0.5 percentage point to 2.8 per cent. Although Washington has paused the historic high tariffs for a 90-day period and is negotiating with China and its other trading partners including the EU, the uncertainty has already hit global economic and trade activity. Global economic headwind is expected to hurt about 60 per cent of all developing economies this year, that are set to rise by 3.8 per cent in 2025, more than a percentage point lower than the average of the 2010s. Low-income countries are expected to grow by 5.3 per cent this year – a downgrade of 0.4 percentage point from the forecast at the beginning of 2025, the World Bank said. Against rising trade barriers, developing economies should 'seek to liberalise more broadly by pursuing strategic trade and investment partnerships with other economies and diversifying trade – including through regional agreements', the World Bank said. Regional outlook In the Middle East and North Africa region, the lender expects aggregate gross domestic product to expand 2.7 per cent this year and further strengthen to an average of 3.9 per cent in 2026 and 2027. In East Asia and Pacific, growth is expected to slow to 4.5 per cent this year and further weaken to 4 per cent on average in the next two years. The World Bank expects Europe and Central Asia region economy to slow to 2.4 per cent this year, edging up slightly 2.6 per cent in 2026 and 2027. South Asian economy is set to moderate to 5.8 per cent this year, while sub-Saharan African economic output is expected to edge up slightly to 3.7 per cent in 2025, according to world Bank data.
