A total of 1.77 million tons of rice worth $2.13 billion were imported to Iran from five countries in the fiscal 2022-23, registering a 101% and a 194% rise in terms of weight and value respectively compared with the year before, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Customs Administration.
The imports stood at 885,000 tons worth $726 million in the fiscal 2021-22, IRIB News reported.
The UAE, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey and India were the top five rice exporters to Iran during the year that ended on March 20, 2023.
India exported 885,000 tons worth $1.16 billion to top the list of rice exporters to Iran during the period and accounted for 54.34% of Iran’s total rice imports.
It was followed by Pakistan that accounted for 33.78% of total imports with 628,000 tons worth $721 million.
The UAE, Thailand and Turkey came next, respectively.
According to Masih Keshavarz, secretary of Iran’s Rice Suppliers Commission, the seasonal ban on rice imports was not implemented in the last Iranian year.
The ban seeks to shore up domestic production during the harvest season.
Indian Exporters Require LC Amid Non-Payment of Dues
Indian rice exporters have decided to ship basmati rice to Iran only against letter of credit (LC) or cash due to non-payment of dues amounting to Rs700 crore amid a currency crisis in the Persian Gulf nation, The Economic Times reported earlier this month.
All India Rice Exporters Association has written to the Government Trading Corporation of Iran about their decision, as the latter has failed to pay for the new season crop that arrived in the market in November-December last year and was shipped during January-March.
Earlier, the Hindu Business Line had reported that India’s basmati rice exports surged by 17% in volume during the first three quarters of last fiscal year, while exporters are earning at least 20% more on average in overseas markets, as Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE together bought half of India’s total shipments of the aromatic rice.
In 2013–14, India exported 3.76 million tons of basmati worth $4.87 billion, a record high in value terms, realizing an average of $1,295 per ton.
“That was an exceptional year as Iran had bought nearly 1.5 million tons of basmati from India whereas the traditional top buyer Saudi Arabia imported around 0.8 million tons,” said an industry veteran who has been tracking basmati prices for the last two decades.
“More than 2.4 million tons of rice were produced in the last fiscal year,” Shaygan Adibi, an Agriculture Ministry official, said in January.
He said the production volume indicates a 30% rise compared to the preceding year’s output that was less than the annual average.
Adibi added that the year’s second harvest was underway in 90,000 hectares of paddy fields of norther provinces, which would be added to total production.
“Since domestic rice consumption in Iran is not more than 3 million tons [per year] and annual production is around 2.4 million tons, imports should hover around 600,000 tons, just like the previous year,” he said.
The three northern provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan are the biggest producers of rice in Iran.
