Government denies possibility of lifting ban on wheat export
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India, the world’s second largest wheat producer, banned wheat exports in May 2022 as part of measures to control rising domestic prices. Asked whether export of wheat would be allowed, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said, “Not likely.”
The Center on Tuesday ruled out lifting the ban on wheat exports, but said consignments of the food grain through diplomatic channels would be considered on a case-to-case basis. India, the world’s second largest wheat producer, banned wheat exports in May 2022 as part of measures to control rising domestic prices. Asked whether export of wheat would be allowed, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said, “Not likely.”
Some quantity of wheat is being supplied by India to some countries like Nepal and Bhutan through government to government reciprocal trading arrangements. He said, “We will consider it when there is a request from the Ministry of External Affairs.” Citing the reason for continuing the export ban, Additional Secretary in the Food Ministry Subodh Kumar said that India is not a traditional wheat exporting country. However, the country exported wheat in the last three years due to surplus supply. The country exported wheat in the range of 2-7 million tonnes annually in the last three years. He said that last year the export of wheat was 50 lakh tonnes.
He said, “The production of wheat was less during the last year due to climatic reasons. However, this year production is higher than last year and availability is expected to be one crore tonnes more than last year. It is necessary to make wheat available for local consumption and domestic market at reasonable prices, he added. . The Additional Secretary further said that in the marketing year 2023-23 (April-March), wheat procurement has so far reached 26.2 million tonnes. FCI will have an additional 85-90 lakh tonnes of wheat after meeting the PDS requirement.
On rise in prices of wheat despite higher production, the Additional Secretary said that marginal increase in prices of the commodity after the end of harvesting and procurement season is normal. He said, “The prices have gone up a bit. The prices remain low at the time of harvesting and after that there is some increase. This is because the supply from the farmers gets over and after that it is coming from the traders. The government has estimated a record production of 11 crore 21.8 lakh tonnes of wheat in the crop year 2023-24 (July-June).
Disclaimer:IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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