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Nearly a third of India’s rice exports for this month are stuck due to a shortage of freight trains

Rice
India
Published Jan 22, 2022

Tridge summary

Nearly a third of India’s rice exports for January 2022 are stuck due to a shortage of freight trains. Most traders have stopped signing February export contracts to avoid demurrage charges, industry officials told Reuters. The slowdown in exports from India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, has allowed rival suppliers such as Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam to increase overseas sales at higher prices.

Original content

Slowing exports could force the Indian government to increase procurement from farmers Shipments of more than 500,000 tonnes of non-basmati rice that need to be transported to ports on India’s east coast from the central state of Chhattisgarh have been stuck due to the shortage of freight trains, dealers said. They are part of around 1.5 million tonnes of rice that India had planned to export this month. Railway authorities have diverted wagons to ship fertilizers and to serve thermal coal to power plants to ensure adequate power supply this winter after power plants ran out of coal a few months ago. The delay in Indian shipments is hitting exporters hard as vessel rates have risen to $30,000 per day and some exporters need to pay as much as $500,000 in demurrage charges, wiping out their entire margin. Traders have started quoting higher prices for overseas shipments to cover higher demurrage charges, and prices for India’s 5% broken parboiled variety of rice have risen to $380 ...
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