Egypt's ministry of trade and industry will ban rice exports again as of September 1, according to a decision published in Egypt's official legal gazette.

Egypt had allowed the export of its medium-grain rice last October with a tariff payable to the government for every tonne exported.

The decision said any export licenses granted according to its 2014 allowance could still be used.

In October Egypt said it would allow the export of rice on condition that traders sell the government one tonne of rice at 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($255.43) for every tonne of rice they export. Exporters also had to pay a tariff of $280 on every tonne exported.

Egypt, which produced around 4.3 million tonnes of rice in the 2014 season, only consumes around 3.3 million tonnes.

Egyptian medium grain rice mainly competes with US, Russian and Italian rice on the international market.

Traders had argued the tariff imposed made exports non-profitable.

Egypt first imposed a ban on exports in 2008 saying it needed to save the rice for local consumption and wanted to discourage rice farmers from growing the crop to save water.

Rice exporters have complained that the ban on free exports has led to illicit trading.  - Reuters