In order to bring down prices and ensure rice availability for its domestic market, Egypt has decided to increase the export duty on rice to 300 Egyptian pounds ($54.84) PMT from the current levels of 200 pounds PMT.

The government justifies the duty by saying that rice exports indirectly export water, which is a scarce resource subsidized by the government.

Egypt produces about 4 million MT of milled rice a year and consumes about 3.2 million MT. It exports its own short-grain rice, mainly to other Arab countries, and imports some long-grain rice from Asia.