India decides to allow export of rice to Singapore in view of special relationship

India said it has decided to allow export of rice to Singapore in view of the special relationship between the two countries. EAM spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said formal orders allowing export of rice to Singapore will be issued shortly.

The government has decided to allow Singapore to import rice from India, relaxing the ban it had imposed on the export of the grain in July.

India has decided to allow the export of rice to meet the food security requirements of Singapore, Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said in New Delhi on Tuesday. He said that the formal orders allowing the export of rice from India to Singapore would be issued shortly.

Singapore had requested New Delhi to allow it to import at least 110,000 tonnes of rice from India, relaxing the ban on the export of the grain.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on July 20 imposed a ban on the export of non-basmati white rice from the country after a late but heavy monsoon resulted in significant damage to crops and the price of the grain in the domestic market shot up by about 3 per cent.

India, the largest rice exporter in the world, accounts for more than 40 per cent of global shipments of grain. The non-basmati white rice accounts for nearly 25 per cent of the exports of grains from India.

Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia are among the nations that so far requested India to grant exemptions from the ban and allow the export of rice. The United Nations World Food Programme also requested New Delhi to relax the ban so that it could procure at least 200,000 tonnes of rice to help meet the requirements of its humanitarian operations around the world.

The MEA spokesperson said that the government had decided to relax the ban for Singapore as India and the Southeast Asian city-state enjoyed “a very close strategic partnership, characterized by shared interests, close economic ties and strong people to people connect.”