long grain rice

Rice is a product milled out of paddy. Rice is the staple food for 65% of the total population of over a billion in India. Rice is grown in several states across the country. During the year 2003-04, India accounted for 44.41 million hectares of area with the production level of 87 million MT of rice. West Bengal was the largest rice producer (16.39%) during 2001-02 followed by Uttar Pradesh (12.24%), Punjab (9.47%), Orrisa (7.68%) and Tamil Nadu (7.38%). In year 2002-03 West Bengal remained the largest producer with rice production at 14.39 million MT (19.81%), followed by Punjab (12.22%) and UP (11.16%).

The market size of rice in India is more than 75,000 crores with an average annual production of 85 million MT. Since rice is the staple food of farmers themselves, farmers retain roughly 40% of the produce for food, feed and seed purpose which does not enter into the trading value chain. Of the balance 60% traded and marketed, about 50% is handled by public sector (the Food, Corporation of India assisted by various state agencies) and the rest by private trade.

India exports rice to a large number of countries in the world. Indias total exports of rice were 2.2 million MT in 2001-2002 valued at Rs. 3174 crores. Rice is mainly exported to Gulf countries, European Union, USA, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Japan etc.

Following Rice Varities are exported:

Rice is a product milled out of paddy. Rice is the staple food for 65% of the total population of over a billion in India