By Admin 
India Rice Export to Iran: India exports rice on a large scale. Rice is exported from India to 165 countries around the world. Of these, Bangladesh, Nepal, Cameroon, Papua New Guinea, Ivory Coast, African country Benin buy non-Basmati grazing from India.
At the same time, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia buy premium Basmati rice from India. Meanwhile, India is facing problems in exporting premium Basmati rice to Iran as 45 million tonnes of rice is exported in global trade. Of these, India’s share alone is 22 million tonnes. These include both Basmati and non-Basmati rice.
India faced these difficulties
Meanwhile, India is facing problems in exporting premium Basmati rice to Iran because the government here has withdrawn the subsidy given on import of food items. Due to this, Indian exporters have stopped their shipments.
According to Hindustan Times report, consignments worth at least Rs 2000 crore are currently stuck at international ports, awaiting clearance from Iran. It is being told that after the Iranian currency Rial reached a record low against the US dollar, the Iranian government has stopped the exchange rate subsidy given on the import of food items.
Loss to exports due to removal of subsidy
Withdrawal of subsidies hurts exporters as they have to pay full taxes and duties on their products. This increases costs, making goods more expensive for domestic consumers. Removal of subsidy directly affects the profits of exporters and sometimes they lag behind exporters from other countries. This is the reason why due to American sanctions, this decision of Iran has affected the producers and processors of Punjab and Haryana, the main Basmati growing states of India.
Why did the Iranian government take this decision?
The government of Iran has decided that now the subsidy money will be deposited directly into the accounts of the citizens of the country so that they can buy food items as per their needs. The government wants that the benefits of subsidy should reach the people directly. In this connection, Iran has announced to give a subsidy of Rs 600-600 to each of its citizens for the next 4 months.
The government believes that despite spending billions of rupees on the subsidized exchange rate, the common people of the country are not getting its benefit, people are struggling with rising inflation. The benefits of import subsidies are not reaching the consumers because the subsidized exchange rates are being used by many sectors to arbitrarily fix the prices of imported goods. Due to this black marketing is increasing.
Wrinkles on the forehead of Indian exporters
Ranjit Singh Joson, vice-president of the Punjab Rice Millers Association, told Hindustan Times, “Due to the sharp fall of the Iranian rial against the US dollar, which has reached a record low, the Iranian government has refused to continue the subsidies it has been providing for imports of food items for many years. This is making exporters hesitant to continue trade.”
Trade with Iran was earlier done through the barter system (through exchange of goods) as banking channels were limited due to the sanctions imposed by the US. That system ended when India stopped importing Iranian oil. Joson said, “Despite this, Iran continued to import food products like tea, basmati rice and medicines from India, but now it seems that these imports are also being cut.”
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