Indian rice exporters say the country's rice production could touch nearly 100 million tonnes in the next crop year, helped by plentiful monsoon rains.
India is the world's second-biggest producer and consumer of rice after China.
"Better rains coupled with government spending on hybrid seeds may help the country produce more than 99 million tonnes of rice" in the next crop year, All-India Rice Exporters' Association President Vijay Setia said.
The agriculture ministry forecasts India's rice production in the crop year to June 2010 will shrink by about 10 percent to 89.31 million tonnes, lower than the previous year's record 99.2 million tonnes.
Rice production was hurt by a bad monsoon in 2009 when India received the scantiest rainfall in nearly four decades.
The production outlook for the rice crop year that starts July 1 came late Friday after India's weather office said it expected the monsoon would be better than earlier expected.
The India Meteorological Department said this year's rains would be 102 percent of the 50-year average, higher than an April projection of 98 percent.
Summer crops, such as rice, sugar cane, cotton and oilseeds, are sown in July and harvested from October.
India banned exports of non-basmati or common grade rice in 2007 in a bid to cool food inflation, which now is running at almost 17 percent after last year's drought.
The Congress-led government is hoping a good monsoon will tame food prices. It says it may reassess the ban on rice exports after it confirms the size of the rice crop.
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