India’s summer-sown rice output is likely to cross the previous year’s level due to a pick up in monsoon rains, raising prospects for higher overseas sales in 2015 by the world’s biggest exporter of the grain, trade officials said.
Robust exports from India could keep a lid on global prices that have surged 12% in the past three months and help cut bulging government stockpiles built as a result of bumper harvests over the past several years.
“There were concerns over production due to poor rainfall in June. The pick-up in rains from mid-July changed the situation. Now, the crop is in good shape,” said B.V. Krishna Rao, managing director of Pattabhi Agro Foods Pvt Ltd, a leading exporter.
In June, monsoon rains were 43% lower than the 50-year average, raising concerns about output of the rice crop that guzzles a lot of water. But rains picked up in the past few weeks, narrowing the rainfall deficit to 11%.
“Overall rice production will definitely be higher than last year but it is a little early to quantify by how much,” said Rajen Sundareshan, executive director of the All India Rice Exporters Association.
via India’s rice output, exports to climb on revival of monsoon | Business Standard News.
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