April 20: India is likely to halt the export of wheat due to the decline in production this year.
Indian authorities have made it clear that they will not export wheat until they meet the demand for domestic requirement of wheat.
Ashok K Meena, chairman and managing director of Food Corporation of India (FCI) revealed to the Indian media that the country has failed to meet the estimated production target of 112.1 million tons of wheat this year. Last year, India produced 106.8 million metric tons of wheat.
Talking to the online edition of Times of India and NDTV, Meena said that they have so far been able to store only 10 percent of the 34.2 million tons of wheat required to be stored for India's domestic consumption under the Food Security Act. He said that export is not an option until wheat is stored in the required quantity.
“Until there is enough stock for domestic consumption, we cannot even think about exporting.”
After the Indian government fixed the price of wheat for the farmers at INR 2155 per quintal, the farmers have been selling wheat in the local market at a better price than the price set by the government. Traders are buying wheat from farmers at INR 2300 per quintal.
If the government starts buying wheat by raising some prices and if the farmers sell wheat at the price set by the government, it will take four months to reach the FCI quota of 34.2 million tons. According to FCI, it is not possible to buy wheat immediately and store it due to high humidity of wheat due to unseasonal rains in many parts of India.
The flour manufacturers of Nepal have submitted a letter to the Indian Embassy saying that they need 300,000 metric tons of wheat until May. An official response on this matter is yet to come from the Indian side.
Last year India provided only 50,000 tons of wheat against a demand of 200,000 tons.
Wheat produced in Nepal will come into the market from May. Farmers said that due to lack of rain this time, wheat production in Nepal decreased by half.
Nepal needs 1,000,000 metric tons of wheat annually.
