NRIs in US, Canada rush to stock up on rice after India’s export ban
The ban has triggered a spike in price of rice in global markets
NRIs in US, Canada rush to stock up on rice after India’s export ban
Missouri: Neena Vengilla, who lives in St Louis in Missouri, US, wanted rice for dosa on Friday. Her husband Srikrishna went to the nearby grocery store and picked up organic rice costing $24 per 20 lb. “I switched over to millets four years ago. We need rice only for dosa. I bought organic rice because people here don’t usually buy it in view of its price,” said Srikrishna.
He is reminded of a similar queue for wheat last year when India banned its import. “People have now got used to Canadian wheat,” the non-resident Indian(NRIs), who went to the US in the 1990s, said.
Ironically, Indian white rice now costs nearly $50 per 20 lb double the price of organic rice. “No one wants to touch red or mata or other such rice good for health,” Srikrishna says.
But not all NRIs have been as cool as the Vengillas. Thousands of expatriate Indians living in the US and Canada made a beeline at grocery stores and retail chains to buy rice soon after India imposed the ban on export of non-basmati white rice on Thursday evening.
“Some stores are reporting a run on them after hundreds of Indians, particularly South Indians, are trying to get a few bags of rice in panic buying of rice,” Anusha (name changed) told businessline.
“The (export ban) news triggered a frenzy. And all of us duly joined (the frenzy),” Gangadhar, an NRI living in the United States said. NRIs from South India, who are fond of Sona Masuri variety of rice, are a worried lot. “It has caused panic,” a US-based Telugu NRI said, on the condition of anonymity.
“Probably, the Centre did not think of the millions living abroad. They all buy high-priced white rice varieties that cost over $600 a tonne,” says a New Delhi-based trader, who did not wish to be identified.
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