CAIRO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Egypt's government has approved plans to allow the export of rice, the supplies minister said on Thursday, bringing a major medium-grain rice exporter back into the international market for the first time since 2013.

Traders would be allowed to export rice provided they sell the government one tonne of medium-grain rice at 2,000 Egyptian pounds($279.72) for every tonne of rice they export.

Exporters would also have to pay a tariff of $280 per tonne exported, the minister said.

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.

However, rice exporters have complained that the ban on free exports has led to the rise of a contraband trade by creating a large price difference between domestic and export markets. (1 US dollar = 7.1500 Egyptian pound) (Reporting by Ehab Farouk, Writing by Lin Noueihed; editing by Susan Thomas)