India is in talks with Indonesia to export 10 lakh tonnes of rice valued at Rs 3,300 crore as the island nation is expecting fall in production.
"Indonesia is expecting a fall in rice production this year and looking to import rice. Indonesia has started the negotiation process," a source told PTI.
Rice is a staple food of Indonesia and it had imported rice last year as well.
"Though no final decision has yet been taken over the price, but the economic cost to the government for the 10 lakh tonnes rice is about Rs 3,300 crore," the source said.
As far as India is concerned, the government is in a comfortable position regarding rice stock.
The country has more than 160 lakh tonnes of rice in stock against the requirement of 76 lakh tonnes on January 1.
Besides, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has another 127 lakh tonnes of rice in form of paddy.
As per the second advance estimate of the Agriculture Ministry, rice production is estimated to be down marginally at 103.61 million tonnes (MT) in 2015-16 crop year (July-June), as against 105.48 MT last year.
Already, the procurement of kharif rice has reached 26.13 MT so far this year, much higher than 21.54 MT in the year-ago period.
The Centre's nodal procurement agency Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state government-owned agencies undertake procurement operations. The Centre has kept a rice procurement target of 30 MT for the this year.
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