Indian government has introduced new regulations to control rice exports. From now on, except for Basmati rice, exporting any other type of rice will require registration with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

The Foreign Trade Division of India issued this directive on Wednesday (September 24).

According to the directive, the new rules will apply to new Letters of Credit (LCs) opened for rice imports, except for those LCs that have already been tendered against existing rice import LCs.

Dinesh Poddar, a rice importer at Hili land port, said Bangladesh is one of the largest importers of common rice from India. He added that due to the new export policy by the Indian government, the pace of rice imports into Bangladesh may slow down.

Poddar also mentioned that the cost of rice imports will increase compared to before, which is likely to push up retail rice prices in the local market.