India has released 397,267 tonnes of broken rice sold under letter of credit (L/C) terms that have been left stranded at ports since a sudden 8 September ban on exports of certain types of rice.

Shipments on which agreements were made or L/Cs issued prior to that date were exempt from the ban, but India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) prevented loading of cargoes of rice exports until it had verified details on shipments that exporters claimed were exempt from the ban (DC World News, 30 September 2022).

Permission to apply

The DGFT has now issued a notice saying that exporters with L/Cs issued for shipments of broken rice prior to 8 September can apply for permission to ship their cargoes.

The messaging date between the exporter's Indian bank and the buyer's foreign bank should be prior to that date and applicants must be able to show that the L/C has been authenticated by the foreign bank according to the notice.

Caveats

The notice warns that the directorate "reserves the right to decide or alter the modalities of distribution and allocation of quota" depending on the amount of valid applications for broken rice exports received.

The directorate also stresses that applications for permission to ship cargoes of broken rice must be submitted online and before 20 October 2022.

The DGFT's notice providing full details of applications for permission to ship cargoes of broken rice can be found here.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or Coastline Solutions.