The United Arab Emirates’ rice exporting ban issued Friday comes about a week after India issued its major prohibition on non-basmati rice exports, heavily affecting the local markets of the Gulf country that imports 90% of its food.
The UAE was the 16th-largest importer of rice in the world in 2021, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, importing $484 million in rice that year. It also imported the majority of its rice from India ($301 million) and is therefore critically impacted by the new Indian policy.
What happened: The UAE Ministry of Economy announced on Friday a temporary suspension of rice exports and reexports to foreign markets for four months.
The ban covers “various types of rice and their products that do not originate from India,” the ministry said in a statement.
Those who wish to export, or reexport non-Indian rice must submit an application to the ministry to obtain special permission, it continued. It was not specified why only Indian products aren’t part of the temporary ban.
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The UAE rice ban follows one issued less than two weeks before from India, which saw the South Asian country and leading global rice supplier completely prohibit the export of non-basmati white rice on July 20. This is an amendment to a 20% export duty tax imposed on non-basmati white rice in September 2022.
The complete ban with immediate effect was issued “in order to ensure adequate availability of Non-Basmati White Rice in the Indian market and to allay the rise in prices in the domestic market,” stated the press release from India’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
