{"id":70074,"date":"2025-08-09T13:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T13:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/70074\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T13:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T13:23:09","slug":"donald-trumps-tariffs-may-hand-pakistans-basmati-market-advantage-latest-news-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/70074\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump’s tariffs may hand Pakistan’s basmati market advantage | Latest News India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 50% tariff imposed by the Trump administration has left Punjab and Haryana basmati growers and exporters deeply worried, fearing severe impact on aromatic grain exports to the US as neighbouring Pakistan gains a significant competitive advantage.<\/p>\n

\"Unlike Unlike sectors such as smartphones and pharmaceuticals that remain exempt from Trump\u2019s tariff offensive, basmati rice faces the full burden of America\u2019s punishment for India\u2019s energy relationship with Russia. (HT PHOTO) <\/p>\n

The punitive tariff rate \u2014 among the highest imposed on any US trading partner \u2014 stems from Trump\u2019s August 7 executive order adding a 25% penalty for India\u2019s Russian oil purchases<\/a> on top of an existing 25% reciprocal tariff, with the combined levy taking effect August 28.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a double whammy,\u201d said Ranjit Singh Jossan, vice-president of the basmati exporters association, explaining that India exports nearly 300,000 tonnes (worth $350 million) to the US annually and the steep tariffs will hit exporters hard while giving Pakistan\u2014another major producer, with a 19% levy on its goods \u2014a crucial edge.<\/p>\n

Unlike sectors such as smartphones and pharmaceuticals that remain exempt from Trump\u2019s tariff offensive, basmati rice faces the full burden of America\u2019s punishment for India\u2019s energy relationship with Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Trump raised the rate on Indian imports from an initially planned 26% to 50%, he lowered tariffs on Pakistani<\/a> imports from 29% to 19%, making Indian grain 31% costlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia\u2019s loss is Pakistan\u2019s gain,\u201d Jossan said. \u201cTraders from the neighbouring country have already started taking orders from the US, but Indian traders are unable to negotiate because of the cost disparity.\u201d<\/p>\n

A tonne of basmati purchased in the US at $1,200 will cost an additional $600 if imported from India, compared to just $228 extra from Pakistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this moment we do not stand a chance to sell our produce in the US,\u201d Jossan added.<\/p>\n

The new tariff comes at a particularly vulnerable time for the sector, as basmati prices are already sliding. Popular varieties such as 1121 and 1509 have dropped from \u20b94,500 per quintal in 2022-23 to \u20b93,500-3,600 in 2023-24, and could fall further to \u20b93,000, industry sources fear.<\/p>\n

The decline threatens to push farmers away from basmati cultivation altogether. \u201cThe trend of falling prices may push farmers to abandon basmati in favour of regular paddy, which now has a Minimum Support Price of over \u20b92,400 per quintal,\u201d said Gurbakshish Singh, a farmer from Tarn Taran, a border district of Punjab.<\/p>\n

Singh\u2019s family has cultivated basmati for many years, but he remains apprehensive about the lack of price stability.<\/p>\n

The uncertainty is already reflected in cultivation patterns. Punjab<\/a>\u2019s basmati area has shrunk from 7.63 lakh hectares in 2015-16 to 6.39 lakh hectares in 2024-25. Popular varieties like 1509, 1121, and 1718 cover over 80% of the area but fetch declining prices.<\/p>\n

Haryana\u2019s cultivation area has fluctuated between 6.5-7.1 lakh hectares in recent years, standing at 6.8 lakh hectares in 2025.<\/p>\n

Punjab and Haryana produce premium quality grain with varieties such as 1121 and 1509 famous globally, accounting for 40% of India\u2019s total basmati exports. Punjab alone produces nearly 40% of the country\u2019s basmati rice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quantity of basmati exports to the US is just a small portion of total exports from India, but it disturbs the overall trade and cropping pattern,\u201d said Jagdeep Singh Aulakh, a farmer from Badshahpur village in Karnal district, Haryana.<\/p>\n

Jossan said smaller exporters with annual turnovers of about \u20b9100 crore are bearing the brunt. They have slashed procurement prices from \u20b97,100 to \u20b96,200 per quintal, pushing down wholesale domestic prices from \u20b971 to \u20b962 per kg, with retail prices likely to follow.<\/p>\n

Millers face huge losses due to unsold basmati stocks piling up. \u201cExporters won\u2019t buy unless the situation improves,\u201d Jossan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 50% tariff imposed by the Trump administration has left Punjab and Haryana basmati growers and exporters deeply…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[50735,50732,28,50736,101,50733,50734],"class_list":["post-70074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-aromatic-grain-exports","tag-basmati-rice","tag-business","tag-competitive-advantage","tag-economy","tag-punjab-and-haryana","tag-trump-administration-tariff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}