Indian rice exporters may soon be able to resume Basmati exports to Iran. Top officials in the country have assured India that the temporary ban placed on imports late last year will be lifted shortly and the process of registration of suppliers will begin.
A team of officials from the Commerce Ministry recently visited Iran to hold talks with their counterparts on exports of a variety of products including rice.
“We were assured that Iran is ready to resume rice imports as the glut in their domestic market has eased substantially,” a Commerce Ministry official told BusinessLine. Business for rice exporters, however, is not likely to be as brisk as before, as Iran still has substantial stocks of rice.
“Iranian officials have indicated that they will resume the process of re-registration of Basmati suppliers. The country is supposed to come up with its notification (on lifting curbs) on March 21. We have to find out what happens,” said Rajen Sundaresan from the All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA).
Sundaresan was part of the business delegation that accompanied the Indian officials. “We expect rice exports to Iran to be 3-5 lakh tonnes (lt), as it will not be possible to touch the earlier highs,” the Ministry official said.
In 2014-15, exports of rice from India to Iran are likely to be around 8 lt, as opposed to expectations of 10 lt. In 2013-14, India’s export of Basmati to Iran was a whopping 1.4 million tonne.
Sundaresan said that while Iran had not indicated how much they want to buy, the general expectation was that it would be lower this year as there was still a lot of existing stock in the market.
Iran stopped importing rice late last year (August-September) as there was a glut in the country because of a robust local production and a spill-over in stocks from the previous year.
Iran had stepped up its purchase of all items including rice from India over the last couple of years to get around economic sanctions imposed by Western countries over its alleged nuclear activities.
India and Iran have put in place a Rupee payment mechanism wherein part payment for the oil purchased from Iran by India is deposited in a Rupee account in India’s UCO Bank. The money is then used to make payments to Indian exporters to Iran thereby avoiding payments in Dollars and through foreign banks.
Source:thehindubusinessline.com
No comments:
Post a Comment