India's top rice imports

 India's top rice imports are convinced the government will not follow other nations in adopting restrictions on grains exports as the country has more than enough supplies to satisfy domestic demand. Bumper plants will help the nation avoid curbs on international sales, according to some of the country's key exporters. As the coronavirus continues to spread across the Earth, panic buying and worries over supply chain disruptions have led several states including Vietnam, Russia and Kazakhstan, to quit exporting some basic foods to shore up supplies in the home. That has raised concerns over whether India, the world's biggest exporter of rice, will follow suit. "India isn't deficient in manufacturing and, at the immediate foreseeable future, there does not appear to be a cause for concern over food safety," said Vijay Setia, director at Chaman Lal Setia Exports Ltd., a rice miller and exporter. "We might have enough surplus for exports." Fears of shortages also have helped costs of Thai white rice 5% broken, an Asian export benchmark, spike over 25 percent annually to $564 a ton on Wednesday, the greatest since 2013. Rough rice futures in Chicago are all around the most powerful for almost six decades. There may also be an increase in demand from Middle Eastern countries, '' he explained. Global milled rice production will likely be little changed from a year before at 499.31 million tons from 2019-20, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Ending stockpiles are observed at a listing 182.3 million tons, up about 4% from a year before, the data reveal. While global grain stocks are rather comfortable and the weather forecast this year fairly positive, countries may adopt export limitations or increase stockpiling should the pandemic accelerate faster than expected or when the harvest outlook deteriorates, Fitch Solutions stated in a report. India has imposed export curbs during similar situations previously, it said. Though there aren't any concerns right now,"if the fear of the unknown prevails and niches get dented with hoarding etc., then of course various governments have to resort means at their disposal to deal with the circumstance," explained Setia, a former president of the All India Rice Exporters' Association, that has traded the commodity for more than four decades. "Imposing restrictions on foreign exchange could be one such step," he explained. Shipments of rice have slowed somewhat due to logistics issues, such as a lack of employees and truck drivers, caused by the nationwide lockdown, said Vinod Kaul, the executive director of the association. "The lockdown is going to have some effect and we can't avoid it," Kaul said. "There is no move by the authorities to prohibit exports."