Naveed 
The United Arab Emirates imposed a four-month ban on selling rice overseas. The decision is taken to the aim of ensuring sufficient rice supply in the local market of country as India also put a ban on exporting rice due to production shortfall.
The main re-exports of rice from United Arab Emirates are Oman, Benin, Zimbabwe, United States and Somalia. On the other hand UAE mainly exports rice from Pakistan, India, Thailand and Vietnam.
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The temporary ban of four months is aiming to balance the prices of rice in local markets and maintaining the sufficient supply of rice for local people.
Ban Rice Varieties
The varieties of rice which are banned include husked rice including brown rice, partially or wholly milled rice, polished and crushed rice as well as all rice products. If the decision to cancel the ban is not announced then the ban could be extended automatically.
The companies involved in rice trade are ordered to make a request to Ministry of Economy for any kind of rice import or export. The Ministry of Economy will provide a permit of 30 days for the rice shipment.
The local retailers in marker are also expecting 40% increase in the price of rice, but they also believe that this increase is temporary as government is trying to solve the issue of supply.
Vietnam, Pakistan and Thailand are expected to fill the supply gap of non-basmati rice as India is now not able to have rice trade with the United Arab Emirates.
The group director and partner of Al Maya Group in UAE told the media that, “This is only a temporary move as the prices will stabilize and the situation will normalize and supply will be back to normal. The availability of rice would be better and prices would remain stable. The UAE always cares about customers”.
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The ban was actually triggered due to late start of monsoon that led to a large production shortfall. And the heavy rains in the last weeks of June also caused a huge damage to rice crops mainly in India.
