Chennai, Jul 28 (IANS): The Centre's ban on export of rice has left the rice farmers and rice mill owners of Arani in Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu a worried lot.

It is to be noted that Arani and Kalampur in Tamil Nadu are major areas of rice production and export. These places are home to popular rice varieties that are popular in markets in Singapore, Malaysia and even in South Africa as well as all South Indian states.

The main varieties of rice produced from Arani and Kalampur are Ponni, Sona Deluxe, HMT , IR 50 and PTD and these varieties are in high demand in all the above mentioned foreign markets as also in Gulf countries.

Rice mill owners told IANS that there was a regular flow of rice in place and with the ban in place owners were worried that the rice would become stagnant in warehouses. They said that there was a steady flow from Arani to both the domestic and foreign markets and this would now affect the flow.

The rice mill owners also said that there was no price difference for the rice supplied to domestic and foreign markets and hence profit will also remain the same. The owners were worried that the ban would affect them gravely and wanted the government to lift it.

The rice mill owners are also worried about the storage facilities as if the ban is extended rice would be in surplus and the present godowns will not be enough to store it leading to the loss of rice.

Farmers are also worried about the ban and they said that if the rice was in surplus the demand would come down and thus would lead to loss for farmers.

Kuppusamy, a farmer said that only the farmers will be affected as they were on meager living conditions and called upon the concerned authorities to take efforts to lift the ban.