Ahmedabad, April 8 (IANS) India’s exports of basmati rice to Saudi Arabia are set to rise substantially this year following the kingdom’s decision to cut import duty on the commodity. Saudi Arabia is the largest importer of Indian basmati rice. Of India’s total export of 1.1 million tonnes of basmati rice, Saudi Arabia alone accounts for 50 percent, an official of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) told IANS Tuesday.

In 2006-07, for which complete trade data is available, Saudi Arabia imported a total of 632,745 tonnes of rice. Of this, basmati rice exports totalled 499,585 tonnes and the rest was non-basmati rice.

On April 1, Saudi Arabia announced import tariff cut ranging from 15 percent to 20 percent on 180 items, including foodstuffs, frozen chicken, eggs, vegetable oil, milk, juices, canned food, soaps, detergents, sanitary pads, tissue papers, napkins, gypsum, paints, plastic pipes, electrical were, pre-cast building blocks and fertilisers.

The export of meat products to the kingdom is also expected to go up sharply as a result of the duty cut. For the year 2006-07, India exported 33,180 tonnes of meat products, of which 30,751 tonnes were buffalo meet. Sheep and goat meat accounted for the rest of it.

The Indian embassy in Riyadh has circulated Saudi government’s decision to all leading chambers of commerce and export promotion councils.

India-Saudi bilateral trade is currently estimated at over $5.5 billion.