New Delhi: India's rice exports may decline by 20 percent in 2016 due to tight supplies and growing domestic demand, according to the UN body FAO.
India, the world's biggest rice producer after China, is estimated to export about 10 million tonnes of rice this year, same at last year's level, as per the industry data.
"All exporters are expected to step up their rice deliveries in 2016, except India, where a tightening of supplies and growing domestic requirements are foreseen to result in a 20 percent contraction in rice shipment," Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in its latest report on world crop prospects.
Lower exports in India are expected to be offset by increased exports from Thailand and Vietnam. India is expected to harvest 103.5?million tonnes of rice in 2015, it said.
Global rice output is estimated to be lower at 499.3 million tonnes this year, while world trade in rice in 2016 is pegged at 42.1 million tonnes, it added.
FAO also said that global rice prices have been on decline for last ten months and much of the fall has been witnessed in aromatic rice.
Rice prices have softened in India, Vietnam, Thailand as well as in the America. For instance, the export price of Thai rice fell to USD 385 per tonne in June from USD 419 per tonne in the year-ago period, it added.
According to the FAO, world crop prospects look positive this year despite continuing apprehensions over El Nino.
But those global price trends and favourable prospects for world cereal production mask localised hotspots of food insecurity, the report also cautioned.
"Some 34 countries worldwide, including 28 in Africa -- many hosting large numbers of refugees -- are in need of external assistance for food," it said.
Global cereal production is pegged at 2,527 million tonnes in 2015, 1.1 percent decline from the record level last year, it added.
