Amid standoff with India along the LAC, China increased its rice purchase from India for the first time in at least three decades, placing order for shipment of about 5,000 tonnes of broken rice in the last two months. Broken rice is used in making noodles and in the wine industry.

India is the world’s biggest exporter of rice and China is the biggest importer.

According to the All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA), China has started importing Indian rice after a gap of two years and placed orders for shipment of about 5,000 tonnes of non-basmati rice as it is the cheapest in the world rice market.

Indian traders have contracted to export 100,000 tonnes of broken rice for December-February shipment at around $300-320 per tonne. Other grades such as white rice 25 per cent broken and 5 per cent are ruling between $330 (`24,600) and $360 (`26,800) a tonne free-on-board.

China, the world’s largest producer and importer of rice, used to place restriction on imports from India via various means. In 2006, China was given market access for Indian rice, but shipment took place only during the 2017-18 fiscal.

Beijing imports around 4 million tonnes of rice annually but avoided purchases from India, citing quality issues. China’s traditional suppliers, such as Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Pakistan, have limited surplus supplies for export and were quoted at least $30-60 per tonne more compared with Indian prices.

Indian rice exports for the January-October period of the current calendar year have already exceeded the shipments for the whole of last year. Over six million tonnes have been exported during January-October against 5.1 million tonnes in the entire 2019.

Countries like Benin, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone in West Africa, who are traditional buyers of non-basmati rice from India, increased their purchases during the pandemic.