The National Programme on Organic Production (NPOP) nodal agency, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), has fined an exporter and suspended the accreditation of an organic certification firm.
The move comes in response to a Businessline report stating that since the government outlawed the export of white rice and placed a 20% export tax on consignments of parboiled rice during the previous fiscal year, irregularities had been observed in the shipments of organic rice from India.
Reliteaur Foods Private Limited and the Sikkim State Organic Certification Agency were suspended last week, according to informed sources.
A fine of Rs 10 lakh each has also been imposed on both.
Rice Exports
It is worth noting that a consignment of rice of the exporting company has been detained by the customs officials since August.
The company has responded to this by contacting the Gujarat High Court, where the case will next be heard on October 17.
71,131 tonnes of organic rice were transported in four months, from April to July 2024. throughout this time, its overall export from India reached a height of 1,46,585 tonnes, which was much more than the 1,07,727 tonnes total exported throughout the whole FY 2023–2024.
This consisted of over 8,000 tonnes of tukdi rice, 1,27,120 lakh tonnes of white rice, and the rest portion of sela rice. It was natural for suspicion to increase due to this.
Declining Prices
During the period, India’s top buyers of organic rice were the US with 13,626 tonnes and the Netherlands with 16,457 tonnes.
It is not traditional for Vietnam, Madagascar, Kenya, Mozambique, or other African nations to import organic rice, nor does Malaysia.
It was discovered that African countries had bought Sona masoori and organic rice, despite never having imported them in such large quantities.
Due to the irregularities, the cost of exporting organic rice has been steadily declining since October 2023; this coincides with the July export restriction on white rice.
The price dropped from $940/tonne in September 2023 to $529/tonne in June 2024.
Ban Violation
While exporting white rice in the garb of organic rice, the shippers are reported to have violated the ban on white rice(The ban was lifted on September 28, 2024).
In the case of parboiled rice, they had dodged the 20 per cent export duty.
Date : 21 to 25 Oct 2024 (5 Days)
Time : 07:00 PM – 10:00 PM
To get regular Food Industry updates, feel free to join our WhatsApp group: Joining link