India may import rice from Thailand, Vietnam

This would be the first time in 20 years that India imports the grain.

The federal government might also consider banning cotton exports to improve domestic market supplies, Sharma said.

Three state-run trading firms last month floated rice import tenders totalling 30,000 tonnes and received 18 bids ranging from $373 to $599 per tonne.

Of the three, MMTC Ltd said prices quoted in the bids were too high.

"Various possibilities are there. We are also exploring the option of government-to-government deals," Sharma said, adding his government might buy rice from Thailand and Vietnam.

He said a panel of ministers would meet on Nov. 20 to decide on the bids received for the rice import tenders of State Trading Corp of India (STC), MMTC Ltd and PEC Ltd.

Government officials on Monday said bids submitted for supplying rice to PEC would be valid until Nov. 23. But the validity of bids received by STC and MMTC expired on Tuesday, officials, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters.

Traders with global trading firms, which participated in the tenders, said they did not receive any communication either from MMTC or STC.

Sharma said the country had sufficient stocks of rice and imports were aimed at shoring up supplies.

Although India has ample grain stocks, this year's poor monsoon has raised doubts about the output of summer-sown crops.

The government on Nov. 3 said summer-planted rice output could record a bigger-than-expected fall of 18 percent to 69.45 million tonnes compared with the previous year.