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India Seeks to Avoid Panic With Targeted Rice Export Curb

  • Impact will be less severe if restrictions only on broken rice
  • 2008 crisis when India blocked exports unlikely to be repeated
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister Modi declared that his country was ready to “feed the world,” but changed course weeks later by restricting wheat exports to protect food supplies.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister Modi declared that his country was ready to “feed the world,” but changed course weeks later by restricting wheat exports to protect food supplies.

Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg
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India’s potential clampdown on exports of broken rice shows the world’s top shipper trying to thread the needle of cooling domestic inflation without causing global panic.

The government is discussing curbs on broken rice exports, which account for a little under 20% of the country’s rice shipments abroad. While such a move has the potential to further disrupt global crop markets and worsen a hunger crisis, the impact is less severe than if it were to restrict all exports of the grain.