India not considering easing rice export ban - commerce secy

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will not ease curbs on rice exports despite a record crop, a top official said on Tuesday, deciding not to follow Cambodia's lead in allowing shipments with Vietnam expected to relax curbs in July.

India, like other Asian rice exporters, had in March banned exports of non-basmati rice, after a series of earlier partial restrictions, in a bid to boost supplies and contain inflation that is at 3-½ year highs.

"There is no proposal to ease a ban on rice exports," Commerce Secretary Gopal Pillai told reporters.

However, a panel of ministers was considering a proposal to sell small quantities of rice to some countries which have made requests to India at diplomatic levels, he said.

"The only concession which the empowered group of ministers will look at is whether some countries, especially African countries which have made some requests ... for giving them small quantities of rice for meeting their immediate needs," he said.

Food Secretary T. Nand Kumar told Reuters in an interview this month that India would decide by June whether to sell rice to some neighbouring states that have asked the South Asian nation to resume shipments.

The decision of India, the world's second-biggest rice exporter in 2007, to ban non-basmati rice exports and curb sales of the superior basmati variety, triggered protectionist measures by other leading producers to secure supplies for the staple consumed by half of the world.

The curbs trebled benchmark Thai prices. Prospects of a good harvest in India and some other countries have softened prices, prompting Cambodia to lift a ban on rice shipments it imposed two months ago, the first major Asian exporter to roll back such curbs.

(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj)