Price of parboiled rice increases by Rs 10 per kg

Kolkata: Price of parboiled rice, a staple in most Indian households, has shot up by ₹10 per kg after Bangladesh rice traders started placing private orders with the Indian trade, after geopolitical tensions in that country hobbled the usual route of imports.The Bangladesh government used to import rice from India depending on the country’s requirement in a particular year, varying between 3.5-5 lakh tonnes per year.

“The private order for parboiled rice from Bangladesh, amounting to 50,000 metric tonnes per month, was initiated in January,” said Keshab Kumar Halder, MD of Halder Venture, a parboiled riceexporter. “The recent shift to private orders signifies a change in strategy, with rice prices reflecting demand and supply fluctuations. For fine parboiled rice, we have observed a price increase of about ₹10 per kilogram in the Indian market, while common varieties have seen a smaller variation,” he said.

Traders said this sudden surge in demand has pushed up prices of certain varieties of fine parboiled rice by ₹10 per kg and by ₹2-3 per kg for the common varieties. For instance, Miniket rice, which was at ₹43 per kg a month back, is now selling at up to ₹53 per kg. “It is an all-time high price for Miniket rice. Apart from orders from Bangladesh, we have a shortage of Miniket paddy in India, which too is impacting the price,” said Suraj Agarwal, CEO of RiceVilla, a rice exporting and marketing firm that has started export of rice to Bangladesh.