The World’s biggest rice shipper, India is considering possible ban on exports of all non-Basmati rice, following the rising domestic prices, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Aside the price spike, the Indian government may be motivated in part over fears that El Niño, a disruptive weather pattern linked to hotter weather, could ruin crops. India supplies rice to more than 100 countries, and several Asian nations have begun to stockpile rice over fears of El Niño-related drought.
Last September, The Financial Times reported that the country placed a duty on unmilled white rice, husked brown rice, and semi-milled or wholly-milled rice. That decision came following a spike in food prices brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which disrupted wheat trade and sent the price of bread and cereals soaring.
With climate change, imported foods like rice which are not easily grown in northern climates will be expensive and harder to access, Gareth Redmond-King, head of the International Programme at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit said. “Cutting emissions to net zero is the only route to halting climate change to limit warming and avoid even worse impacts,” he said.
He also called for wealthy nations to help India with climate finance and other investments, which, in turn, helps secure the West’s food supplies.
PORTS & BORDERS can add that from it gathered as insights and reports, the move if approved may keep costs low for locals, but may on the other hand result in global price spike, as India is the world’s largest rice exporter shipping over 40% of the world’s rice.
