Basmati surge

Recent damaging floods in Pakistan has revived the hopes of higher Indian basmati exports India exports around 3.2 million tonne basmati mainly to Europe and The Middle east but generally faces tough competition from Pakistan in the Price front According to a survey Pakistans Rice output is expected to decline by nearly 40% in 2010-11 Indias two important varieties Pusa &pusa 1121 are already quoting high by $30-70 But with major orders expected around october &november there is ever reason for the hardening of prices But all is not well in the basmati front with private testing laboratory in Europe pointing out high pestcide level in these exported rice And in addition to this countries like Iran and Saudi-Arabia who are the biggest importers of Indian Basmati have decided to promote their own variety and have stopped issuing licenses and also withdrawing subsidy to their importers So its the right time for the Government to take up all these problems which is supposed to affect the exports in coming months