CAIRO: Egypt will ban export of all types of rice as of Sept. 1, amid efforts to meet an increasing local consumption, Trade and Industry Ministry announced in a Thursday statement in the official gazette.
“This decision is not applicable on export licenses granted according to the 2014 Cabinet allowance,” the statement read.
Egypt has halted rice exports several times previously, but the bans were reversed under pressure from traders.
The last decision was imposed in October, when the government set a condition to obtain one ton of rice at 2,000 EGP ($255) for every ton of exported rice, in addition to a $280 tariff on each ton exported.
Egyptian rice consumption amounts to nearly 3.6 million tons of rice annually, while production is expected to reach 2.7 million tons in the 2015 season, according to Agriculture Ministry data.
“The gap is to be filled by 750,000 tons of surplus stocks from the previous season,” Minister of Trade Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour stated.
Egypt’s medium grain rice competes with American, Russian and Italian rice on the international market, according to Reuters.