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The ongoing crisis in Syria is likely to impact Non-basmati exports from India. Exporters mentioned that they were cautious and mentioned that if the political unrest continues they will loose one of the emerging market for non-basmati rice.
According to the APEDA (The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) data, India exported 20,557 metric tonnes of non-basmati of Rice to Syria during to the period in 2013-14 during April-May, while in 2012-13 it exported 38,113 metric tonnes.
Whereas in 2011-12 the total non-basmati export to Syria was 8,468 metric tonnes. While the quantum is low as compared to South African countries, but it is emerging market and the current crisis may hamper the exports.
It is worth mentioning that Non-basmati rice shipments during the fiscal year 2012-13 registered an increase of 58% at around 6.5 million tonnes against previous year’s 4.09 million tonnes. This quantum jump in non-basmati rice shipments was mainly on account of huge demand from African countries, such as Nigeria and Ghana and also from Indonesia.
As far Basmati is concerned it exported around 14,781 tonnes in 2011-12, 5848 tonnes in 2012-13 and 506 tonnes in 2013-14 during the period April-May 2013. The data clearly suggests that there is more scope for Non-Basmati export to Syria compared to Basmati rice.
Speaking to Business Standard, Arvinderpal Singh Manchanda, managing director, Amar Singh Chawal Wala said, “ The ongoing political unrest will definitely affect the exports. Last year, we exported around 1,000-1,500 tonnes of Basmati to Syria, but now we stopped exporting as lot of risks were involved.
Due to sanction on Syrian Banks, the exports payment were routed through Libyan Banks. Taking into considerations, the risk involved, we decided not to export to Syria which was emerging country for Basmati and Non-Basmati exports. The crisis will definitely have repercussion on exports in coming months.”
They added that the exports have been affected and it will reflect in the June-August 2013 exports data.
R Sundaresan, Executive Director, All-India Rice Exporters Association also confirmed that the present crisis will definitely impact the exports. He added, “This is beyond doubt that the current crisis will impact the exports but since the volume is not too large so the impact would be less. The exporters have to focus on South African countries for non-Basmati exports in order to offset the current volume exported to Syria.”
Exporters also added that some of the exporters have faced payment problem in both the countries. Insiders mentioned that Rice exporters have reworked the business formula with the Syrian importers as they are dealing with only those who have a good track record and ready advance payment.
