For the first time in three decades, China has decided to import rice from India after the stock from its traditional suppliers tightened recently, news agency Reuters reported.
The rice trade comes amidst the ongoing standoff between India and China on the borders around Himalaya. India has reportedly offered its rice to Chinese at a sharply discounted price to clinch the deal,
India is the world’s leading exporter of rice. Beijing imports around 4 million tonnes of rice making it the biggest importer in the world. But it stopped buying from India citing quality issues. After that, the Chinese started relying heavily on import of rice from neighbouring countries like Thailand, Pakistan, Myanmar and Vietnam. These countries, however, were offering limited supplies this time around and that too at a higher rate of about $30 per barrel more than India.
"For the first time, China has made rice purchases. They may increase buying next year after seeing the quality of Indian crop," B V Krishna Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association, told Reuters.
Indian officials concluded the deal at the rate of about $300 per tonne with 100,000 tonnes of broken rice to be exported between December to February shipments. In 2019-20 fiscal, total basmati rice exports were at a record 4 million tonnes and non-basmati rice at 5 million tonnes.
