NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): India's rice procurement in the Kharif marketing season 2011-12 has crossed 250 lakh ton ( 2,50,24,200 ton) mark as of 22nd February 2012, according to Ministry of Agriculture.
Punjab 77,31,325 tons stood first , followed Chhatisgarh 40,54,679 Andhra Pradesh 36,87,335 and Haryana 19,73,875 tons of rice.
Meanwhile, India is expecting a record food grain production of 250 million tons with rice production of 102.75 million tons and 88. 31 million tons for 2011-12.
On the back of record rice production, India government has allocated 4 million tons of non-basmati rice for exports and till now India has exported around 2.3 million tons overtaking Thailand in rice exports.
India has also cut down Minimum Export Price (MEP) of basmati rice from $900 a ton to $700 a ton to encourage exports.
India is the largest producer and exporter of basmati rice in the world.
