Erratic rain pushes rice prices up to 20% in last 10 days
Kolkata|Pune: Uneven distribution of rainfall in the key rice-growing areas of the country has pushed up prices of the grain by up to 20% in the last 10 days, according to industry executives.
Suraj Agarwal, the chief executive of RiceVilla, a rice marketing and exporting company, said that heavy rainfall in northern India has increased the price of the new basmati rice by 9% in the last one week, while scanty rains in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh have pushed up the prices of the common variety of rice -IR 64, which is distributed through public distribution system – by 20%.