AP Govt Seeks Export Of 2.5 Million Tons Of Non-Basmati Rice.

The Andhra Pradesh government has requested the Union Food Ministry to allow export of 2.5 million tonnes of non-basmati rice from the state.

The export of non-basmati rice has been banned since April, 2008 in the wake of high food inflation.

"I request you to kindly consider permitting export of 1.5 lakh tonnes of boiled rice and 1 million tonnes of non-basmati raw rice from Andhra Pradesh to other countries through normal trade channels," State Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said in a letter written to Union Food Minister K V Thomas.

The export of boiled rice, which is not consumed in the state, should be permitted to clear off the space occupied with levy rice in millers'' godowns and encourage them to buy paddy briskly for further milling, he said.

Reddy also stressed that export of raw rice should also be allowed as the state rice millers have surplus stock and there is no market in other states due to excess supply.

At present, rices millers are not buying paddy at support price from farmers as their godowns are full with levy rice because the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has stopped buying levy rice from them due to space constraints, he said.

"This is having an adverse effect on the paddy prices and the farmers are not able to dispose of their paddy at MSP," the AP Chief Minister said.

Rice millers purchase paddy at MSP from farmers and mill it into rice for FCI, the nodal agency for procurement and distribution of foodgrains in the country.

Rice production in Andhra Pradesh is estimated to rise to 14.06 million tonnes in the 2010-11 crop year (July-June) as against 10.83 million tonnes in the last year.

Source : in.finance.yahoo.com