India has quietly become a food grain provider to the world during the time of the pandemic with exports of rice, wheat and coarse cereals witnessing a sharp jump during the first three quarters of 2020-21 financial year.

According to Ministry of Commerce and Industry data, the exports of cereals rose to Rs 49,832 crore in April-December period of FY21 from a level of Rs 32,591 crore ($ 4.58 billion) reported during the same period last year. This is a growth of 52.90 per cent in rupee terms and 45.81 per cent in dollar terms.

The total share of value of cereal exports stood at 48.61 per cent in rupee terms in the total export of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority (APEDA) scheduled products.

Interestingly, the export of non-Basmati rice jumped over 100 per cent while shipment of Basmati rice witnessed relatively smaller rise during the nine month period, the data showed.

During the period under review, the exports of non-Basmati rice stood at Rs 22,856 crore ($ 3.06 billion) against Rs 10,268 crore ($ 1.45 billion) reported during April-December period of FY20. In rupee terms the growth in exports stood 122.61 per cent and in dollar terms it was 111.81 per cent.

The share of export of non-Basmati rice is 22.32 per cent in the total export of APEDA products. India exports non-Basmati rice to countries including Nepal, Benin, United Arab Emirates, Somalia, Guinea and many other countries in Asia, Europe and the United States.

In contrast to the non-basmati variety, exports of Basmati rice grew moderately (by 5.31 per cent in rupee term and 0.36 per cent in dollar terms) to Rs 22,038 crore ($2.94 billion) against Rs 20,926 crore ($ 2.93 billion) reported during April-December period of previous fiscal.

The share of export of Basmati rice was 21.44 per cent in the total export of products under APEDA basket. The major destinations for Basmati rice exports from India include Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and European Countries etc.

Along with rice, the export of wheat rose by a staggering 456.41 per cent (in rupee term) to Rs 1,870 crore ($ 252 Million) against Rs 336 crore ($ 48 million) reported during the first nine months of previous year.

The share of export of wheat is 1.84 per cent in the total export of APEDA scheduled products. The key exports destination for wheat include Nepal, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates,

"We took several measures in terms of ensuring safety and hygiene because of the operational and health challenges posed by COVID19 while ensuring that rice exports continue uninterrupted," Dr. Madhaiyaan Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA said.

For boosting rice exports, the government had set up the Rice Export Promotion Forum (REPF), under the aegis of the APEDA. REPF has representations from rice industry, exporters, and officials from APEDA, ministry of commerce and directors of agriculture from major rice-producing states including West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

(IANS)