Egypt's Ministry of Trade and Industry has decided to extend its ongoing ban on rice exports until April 2009.

The Egyptian government had initially imposed the ban in March this year to increase availability of rice on the domestic market.

Egypt produced 4.6 million metric tons of white rice this year. A total 3.2 million MT were estimated for local consumption while 1.4 million were available for exports, but Egypt exported only 700,000 MT before the ban was imposed.