NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): Basmati rice exports from India are expected to be higher this year with a whopping 2.5 million to 2.7 million metric tonnes due to the bumper harvest and the higher demand for the Pusa 1121 variety, All India Rice Exporters' Association said. This fiscal ending March 31, the basmati rice exports are likely to exceed 2.5 million tonnes because of bumper crop this year, Vijay Arora, president of the All India Rice Exporters' Association was quoted by Dow Jones Newswires.

India had exported around 2.2 million tonnes of premium brand rice in the previous fiscal ended March 31, according to trade estimates. Indian exporters have shipped around 2 million tons of basmati in the current fiscal until December 31, it said.

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The likely jump in basmati production is on account of farmers shifting from non-basmati crops following the lowest monsoon rains in 37 years, since basmati requires less rain. Poor rains are expected to reduce the country's summer-sown rice output by 15% from a year earlier to 71.65 million tons.

However, the basmati exports will continue, as local demand for the premium grain trails production. Besides, more than six to seven lakh tonnes of basmati rice contracts are expected to register within three months, said All-India Rice Exporters’ Association former President, Vijay Setia.

Basmati rice export is calculated on the basis of the export orders registered with APEDA as the data on actual shipments come much late.

Traders said the Pusa 1121 variety is being contracted at $1,500 a tonne. The export price was about $900 a tonne in October 2008, when the new crop started arriving in the market.