Make basmati more competitive in market, says Kirti Kisan Union

The low price of basmati in the local market has worried cultivators and the demand for removing the condition of Minimum Export Price (MEP) of 950 dollars per tonne by the Central government has started to gain strength. Basmati is priced at Rs 2,400 per quintal in the local market now.

Lower prices in the local markets are being attributed to the fact that MEP is much higher than the actual price of basmati in the international market. State president of Kirti Kisan Union Nirbhai Singh Dhudhike said, “Basmati price in international market is around 700 dollars per tonne. With the government restricting exports to lower than 950 dollars per tonne, the traders here are paying low price to cultivators.”

The Kirti Kisan Union stated that as basmati harvesting has just begun, the government should take the decision to remove MEP so as to make local basmati more competitive in international market. The union stated that farmers would stage protests at district headquarters on September 25 to put pressure on the government.

Raminder Singh Patiala of the Kirti Kisan Union said, “It might happen that the government lowers the MEP after the entire produce is already purchased by private traders. And then, it would help traders earn more profit as they would export crop purchased at extremely low price for a big profit and the farmers would get nothing.” He said that in the interest of basmati cultivators, the government should act now.

It is important to note that the state government had encouraged farmers to cultivate basmati instead of other varieties of paddy as it requires less water and has more export value. Moreover, as basmati had got a fairly good price last year, the farmers too were interested in its cultivation. As a result, out of the total 1.80 lakh hectares under paddy in the district, nearly 1.46 lakh hectares alone is under basmati

Another farmer leader Jatinder Singh Chinna said that in Punjab, the area under basmati this season is nearly 6.71 lakh hectare. “From Rs 276 crore in 1990, the export of basmati has reached a whopping Rs 48,389 crore in 2023,” he said. The union has also demanded from the government to fix an MSP of Rs 6,000 per quintal for 1121 variety of basmati and Rs 5,000 per quintal for 1509 variety to ensure that farmers get their due share in the big basmati export business.