The government on Friday, September 13, announced that they have taken the decision to remove the minimum export price (MEP) on onions and basmati rice with immediate effect. The decision comes ahead of the assembly elections in key agricultural states like Maharashtra and Haryana. The government issued an order to enforce this. The MEP for onions was set at $550 (approximately Rs 46,134) per tonne after the ban on exporting onions was lifted. The MEP on basmati rice was $1,200 (approximately Rs 10,06,57) per tonne, which was reduced to $950 per tonne (approximately Rs 79,687) in October last year. Minister Piyush Goyal stated that this move would surely help in promoting the export of these items and would also boost the income of the farmers.
The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has been ordered to take all necessary steps in order to implement this decision, while also closely monitoring all the export contracts for basmati rice.
On August 27, 2023, the government decided not to allow basmati rice exports below $1,200 (approximately Rs 100,657) per ton to curb illegal exports to prevent illegal exports of white non-basmati rice under the guise of premium basmati rice. Later, it was brought down. In the fiscal year 2023-24, India exported basmati rice worth USD 5.9 billion (approximately Rs 49,490 crore). In 2022-23 the country exported 45.6 lakh tonnes of the famous rice at USD 4.8 billion (approximately Rs 40,263 crore).
India is one of the largest exporters of onions. In 2021-22, onions worth Rs 3,326.99 crore were exported. In the subsequent year, 2022-23 it grew to Rs 4,525.91 crore. In 2023-24 the export value was Rs 3,513.22. The government has been selling onions at a discounted price after the prices surged drastically.
