File photo: A worker carries boiled rice in a wheelbarrow to spread it for drying at a rice mill on the outskirts of Kolkata
| Photo Credit: REUTERS
Almost 1,000 tonnes of parboiled rice – which is used to make idlis – are reportedly held up at the ports in Tamil Nadu since last month following the Central government order that levied 20% duty on raw rice exports and banned export of broken rice.
“The Traditional Tamilnadu parboiled idly rice with full of white belly appearance is popular throughout the world,” the Tamil Nadu Rice Mill Owners Association said in a tweet. “Due to the presence of chalky white grains (white belly) in rice (which is its normal appearance) customs officials at ports are not accepting it as parboiled rice,” it added.
According to M. Sivanandan, secretary of the association, Tamil Nadu is the main producer of idli rice, which is parboiled, and is exported to countries such as Dubai, Japan, Canada, and Singapore. The rice looks white though it is parboiled. The officials are asking the exporters to pay 20% duty to export it, treating it as raw rice. With almost 1,000 tonnes held up, the mills are unable to make fresh paddy purchases.
“This is harvest season for this variety of paddy and when the millers do not buy, farmers are affected,” he said.
Thangapandi Jeyaraman, managing partner at RMJ Modern Rice Mill, said almost 30% of the paddy harvest in Tamil Nadu is the idli rice variety. The officials at the port should look at criteria other than appearance, he pointed out.
Mills and exporters in Tamil Nadu ship 120 to 150 containers a month directly, apart from selling to exporters in other States. Except exports from Kerala, where idli rice is double parboiled, idli rice exports are affected in all other States, he said.
