Two years ago in July, when India banned the export of non-Basmati rice, the world faced a food crisis. Panic buying had started in many countries around the world. India has unilateral rule in the world in the matter of rice. 70% of rice worldwide is exported from India. But now Trump’s eyes have fallen on this rice. He says he can impose tariffs on Indian rice.
Why Trump’s attention? Trump says India should not dump its rice in America. He said that this problem will be easily solved by tariff. He also asked his Finance Minister Scott Besant how India was ‘dumping’ its rice, whether it got any exemption?
Trump said all these things during a meeting with representatives of agriculture at the White House. During this, he also announced a package of $12 billion for American farmers.
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What is Trump’s anger?
Trump had a meeting at the White House on Monday. Meanwhile, Kennedy Rice Mill owner Merrill Kennedy said that rice farmers in South America are in trouble because others are ‘dumping’ rice in America.
When Trump asked which countries were dumping rice into the US, Kennedy replied, “India and Thailand and even China in Puerto Rico.” Puerto Rico used to be one of the largest markets for rice, but we have not shipped rice there for years.
Then Trump asked Finance Minister Scott Besant, ‘Tell me about India. Why is India allowed to do this? They have to pay tariffs. Do they have any discount on rice? Besant said, ‘No sir, we are still working on a trade deal with them.’
“But they shouldn’t be dumping,” Trump said. They can’t do that.’ Then Trump said that the tariff would solve this problem in a day. He said, ‘This problem will be solved in a day by imposing tariffs on these countries that are shipping illegally.’
He said that America has lost half of its car and chip industry because previous governments did not impose tariffs on these in America. He said, ‘Same is the case with rice. Will solve this very soon. Just tell us the names of the countries. Will impose tariffs again. This solves the problem in two minutes.
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Does the world eat India’s rice?
India exports its rice to about 170 countries of the world. The stomachs of many countries of the world are filled with rice from India.
Rice is consumed extensively in Asian and African countries. In Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, rice consumption ranges from 40 to 67 percent. Same is the situation in African countries also. Most of the African countries import rice from outside, more than 80 percent of which comes from India.
There are many varieties of rice in India. Basmati rice is exported to rich countries like America. Whereas, non-Basmati rice goes to many small countries including Africa.
How big an exporter is India?
India is not only the largest exporter of rice in the world, but also has the highest production of rice here. According to the Indian Rice Export Federation (IREF), India produces more than 150 million tonnes of rice. That means, 28 percent of the world’s rice is produced in India only.
Similarly, India’s share in global export of rice is 30.3 percent. This means that if 100 million tonnes of rice is being exported across the world annually, then 30 million tonnes of it is from India only.
India had exported more than 20 million tonnes of rice in 2024-25. Its value was more than 12.5 billion dollars i.e. approximately Rs 1 lakh crore. It was about 24 percent more than in 2023-24. Due to the ban, only 1.63 crore tonnes of rice was exported in 2023-24.
According to IREF, Telangana is the largest producer of rice in India. 1.68 crore tonnes of rice was produced in Telangana. After this is West Bengal, where 1.57 crore tonnes of rice is produced. 1.25 crore tonnes of rice is produced in Uttar Pradesh, 1.18 crore tonnes in Punjab, 80 lakh tonnes in Tamil Nadu, 75 lakh tonnes in Andhra Pradesh, 65 lakh tonnes in Bihar and 60 lakh tonnes in Chhattisgarh. Odisha, Assam and Haryana produce about 15 lakh tonnes of rice.
Statistics show that between April and September this year, India has exported rice worth $5.64 billion. Between July and September alone, India exported rice worth $2.73 billion. This was more than 51 lakh tonnes of rice. Of this, 14.36 lakh tonnes was Basmati rice.
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How big a buyer is America?
America is also a big buyer of Indian rice. However, America buys more Basmati rice from India. According to Commerce Ministry data, India exported 52.42 lakh tonnes of Basmati rice in 2023-24. Out of this, America had purchased 2.34 lakh Basmati rice.
This means that out of the Basmati rice that India exports, less than 5 percent goes to America.
However, 89 percent of the Basmati rice that America buys from abroad comes from India. A report of the Commerce Ministry shows that India’s share in America’s non-Basmati rice imports is only 7%. However, India’s share in imports of Basmati rice is 89%. America buys 7% of Basmati rice from Pakistan after India.
This report shows that before the tariff, the price of Indian Basmati rice in the US was $875 per metric ton. After 50% tariff, this price reached $ 1,313 per metric ton.
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