At ₹3,800 per quintal, Basmati growers reap rich harvest

Growers of the early maturing varieties of Basmati rice are likely to report robust earnings as prices of long- grained, aromatic varieties are averaging around ₹3,800 per quintal, traders and growers said.

The rice harvest has started arriving in grain markets of Haryana’s northern districts, including Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat and Yamunananagar, and prices of early maturing Pusa 1509, Pusa 1847 and Pusa 1692 varieties are fetching ₹3,500 to ₹4,000 per quintal, or 100kg, according to reports collected from the mandis of Karnal, Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar districts.

While the harvesting of paddy in Haryana is expected to pick up pace in another two weeks, farmers of Uttar Pradesh are reaping the benefit of higher prices as over 70% of the rice being sold in Haryana’s wholesale markets is from Uttar Pradesh.

Last year, the prices of these varieties saw a spike after a gap of around 10 years, reaching around ₹3,500 per quintal. Traders and arhtiyas (middlemen) are expecting prices to rise further, said a commission agent, Sohan Lal from Kurukshetra.

“Pusa 1509 fetched ₹3,800 per quintal, while the Pusa 1847 was sold at ₹3,500 (per quintal), whereas last year I had sold paddy at ₹3,200 per quintal,” said Manmohan Singh, a farmer from Radaurwho sold his harvest from three acres at Ladwa mandi in Kurukshetra.

“Not only the prices, but the yield is also good this year,” said Sandeep Kumar, a farmer from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, who sold his Pusa 1509 variety from two acres at ₹3,650 per quintal at the Karnal mandi. “The average yield of Pusa 1509 was around 21-22 quintal (per acre) and this will help farmers to offset the losses they faced last year due to the dwarfing disease.”

The key reason behind the surge in prices was higher demand for Basmati rice in the international market and fall in paddy acreage due to floods in the growing districts of Haryana and Punjab, traders said.

The prices of Basmati rice in the global market touched ₹91,803 per tonne in June, compared with ₹85,334 last year, according to the monthly reportof the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority for April-June, 2023. India’s Basmati exports reached 11.72 lakh tonnes in April to June, against 11.25 lakh tonnes in the same period last year.

India’s rice industry is in good health due to a surge in demand, said Vijay Setia, former president of the All India Rice Exporters Association. “There is a sentiment that the rice production may dip this year thanks to the floods in the country’s biggest Basmati producing belts of Haryana and Punjab,” Setia said, which would likely raise prices further.

India’s ban on the export of the non-Basmati or Parmal white rice has also resulted an upswing in Basmati prices, as traders are now focusing more on Basmati trading to meet the demand, he added.

Since there are no restrictions on early sowing of paddy in Uttar Pradesh, farmers started transplantation in May, which took three months to mature. In contrast, farmers in Haryana cannot start transplantation before June 15 and harvesting begins after September 15. Rice cultivators of Haryana are unable to reap the benefit of higher prices in wholesale markets because of the restriction, traders and middlemen said.