Govt relaxes basmati rice export norms

The government today relaxed the export parameters for basmati rice, which will help farmers in Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir.

The government on Tuesday relaxed the export parameters for basmati rice, which will help farmers in Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir.

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"Grain of rice to be exported shall be more than 6.61 mm of length and ratio of length-to-breadth of the grain shall be more than 3.5 mm," the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification.

Earlier, only basmati rice of more than 7 mm-length and a length-to-breadth ratio of more than 3.6 mm was permitted to be exported.

"The relaxation on dimension of the grain will help growers of Ranbir and Basmati-370 varieties of the rice that is primarily grown in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand," All-India Rice Exporters Association President Vijay Sethia said.

Production of these two varieties is estimated at 50,000 tonnes annually.

While India does not export non-basmati rice, it annually dispatches about three million tonnes of the aromatic variety of the grain.