India's exports of gems, jewellery fall 6.2% in September
11 Oct 2019
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Exports of gems and jewellery from the country fell 6.2 per cent in September from a year ago to $3.3 billion as shipments of cut and polished diamonds slumped, according to the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).
The country’s exports of cut and polished diamonds from the country fell 17.8 per cent from a year ago to $1.94 billion, the Council stated in a release.
India’s exports have been hurt by the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, two major consumers of gems and jewellery dampened export demand for cut and polished diamonds.
A tightening of bank credit and the ongoing lending curbs as also higher tax rates have hurt exports of cut and polished diamonds, which make up about 15 per cent of the country’s total exports.
India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, also saw exports in August fall 29 per cent year-on-year to 644,249 tonnes, due mainly to weak demand from African countries for non-basmati rice, among other factors, according to official estimates.
West African countries have bought huge volumes from China, which weakened the appetite for Indian rice.
India is the world’s biggest rice exporter but its shipments have plunged 27 per cent in the first five months of the 2019-20 financial year, starting on 1 April to 3.8 million tonnes, government data showed.
Iran, the biggest buyer of India’s basmati rice, has nearly stopped purchases in the last few weeks as it harvests its own crop. Iran could resume buying early next year after harvesting the local crop, say exporters.
Falling exports at a time when rice supplies from new crop are expected to start from next month could moderate local prices and make exports competitive.
Last month, the government had said that rice production from the summer-sown crop in 2019 was expected to drop 1.7 per cent from a year ago to 100.35 million tonnes.
Exporters say non-basmati rice exports could fall 40 per cent in 2019-20 from a year ago unless the government provided some incentive.
India exported 11.95 million tonnes of rice in the 2018-19 financial year, down 7.2 per cent from the previous 12 months, despite the government providing incentives for non-basmati rice exports.
This was because of lower prices offered by competitors. India’s 5 per cent broken white rice was quoted at about $368-$372 per tonne this week compared with $350 for supplies from Vietnam.
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