Export Rice to Africa: Indian Exporters Face New Challenges
India's rice exports to Africa have been severely hampered as cheaper rice from China and Thailand begins to eat into India’s traditional markets in Africa. Indian exporters of rice are now seeking government intervention to salvage the situation in the form of incentives.
Exports of non-basmati rice shipments fell to $294 million during April-May this year from $652 million in the corresponding period last year.
India has around 50 per cent share in African rice market, estimated at around 15 million tonnes annually.
The strengthening rupee against the dollar has made the Indian rice expensive in the world market, specially for importers of rice in Africa. An increase in minimum support price (MSP) for paddy has further added to the woes of Indian rice exporters.
According to provisional data available, non-basmati rice exports from India to Africa have more than halved in the last year.
The Rice Exporters Association of India has written to the Commerce Industry to "consider extending the 5 per cent incentive under the MEIS scheme and also extend the 5 per cent interest subvention scheme to non-basmati rice exporters".
Chinese Rice Exports to Africa
For rice importers in Africa, Indian non-basmati rice is expensive by 5-10 per cent compared with rice importers from Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and Myanmar. The situation of Indian rice exports to Africa has been further offset as the Chinese State agency COFCO is aggressively targeting new markets in Africa to liquidate old stocks of 3-4 million tonnes. COFCO is targeting markets in Africa, like Egypt, Benin, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Somalia and Liberia. The entry of cheaper Chinese rice into the African markets has further compounded the problem for Indian exporters.
India: Rice Exports to Africa
India is the largest exporter of rice and accounts for a fourth of the global shipments. In 2018-19, non-basmati rice exports fell to 7.5 million tonnes from 8.8 million tonnes in the previous year. In value terms, the shipments fell to $3 billion during 2018-19 from $3.63 billion in the previous year.
Top rice importers of non basmati rice from India in 2018-19 were:
- Nepal
- Benin
- Senegal
- Bangladesh
- Guinea
- Cote D Ivoire
- United Arab Emirates
- Somalia
- Indonesia
- Liberia
Rice Exports to Africa
Africa has become a major player in the international rice market, accounting for 20-30% of the total global imports. The rapid growth of Africa in the international rice trade business is due to its high consumption of rice as a food source in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa produces 14.6 million tons of rice per year on an average on 7.3 million hectares, equivalent to 2.6 and 4.6 % of the world’s total production and area under rice, respectively. The rain-fed systems of West and Central Africa account for 78% of the regional rice land. West Africa accounts for 57% of the rice planted area in the region, amounting to 3.7 million ha. The West Africa region accounts for 42% of the total production, followed by North Africa (32%), East Africa (23.8%), Central Africa (1.2%), and Southern Africa (1%).
Rice Importers in Africa
The relative growth in the demand for rice in Africa is faster than anywhere in the world. The growing rice production in the region is attributed to land expansion by 70% and increase in productivity by 30%. By consumption, the region consumes 11.5 million tons of rice yearly. Due to the higher demand compared to production, the region is highly import-dependent for rice.
The Middle East and Africa together account for nearly half of the total rice trade.
While rice is a cash crop for small-to-medium-scale farmers in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region, it is more of a subsistence crop in West Africa, where most of the continent’s rice is produced. In comparison to the growing demand, rice production in the region is continuously growing at 5-6% every year.
Export Rice to Africa
Rice importers in Africa have been buying ever increasing quantities of rice from all across the world in order to meet the rising demand for rice amongst African buyers. According to industry reports, A frica imported 17 million tonnes in the last five years. Around half of the current global population – or about 3.5 billion people – relies on rice as a source of sustenance and livelihood.
As local rice producers in Africa are not able to meet the rising demand for rice, importers of rice have been buying from overseas suppliers to meet the rising demand for rice amongst African consumers.
List of Rice Importers in Africa
The Africa Rice Importers Directory has been compiled with the sole purpose of promoting direct B2B contacts between African importers of rice and global suppliers. The Africa Rice Importers Directory provides exporters of rice a comprehensive database of importers of rice in Africa and helps them contact them directly.
Online sales as well as email marketing has been playing an ever important role in promoting B2B contacts and generating sales leads – specially so in Africa where other forms of media and promotional tools are not as effective. By compiling a well researched list of rice importers in Africa, the Africa Business Pages has proved once again that it has been leading the pack when it comes to direct B2B promotions in the African markets.
