Friday, November 7, 2003
India's foodgrain exports touch 5 mn tonnes in H1
Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, November 7
India's foodgrain exports from silos managed by the central government have touched five million tonnes in the six-month period from April to September. India has emerged as a major foodgrain exporter in just a few years. Once a food importing country, in December 2000 India started export of rice and followed it up with export of wheat from November 2001.
In addition to the five million tonnes of foodgrains shipped overseas this year, importers had already paid for another 8.67 million tonnes, the food ministry said on Friday.
Of the foodgrains already paid for by importers, exports of 6.88 million tonnes were in the pipeline.
Since entering the global market, India has so far exported a total of 22.52 million tonnes of foodgrains, including 13.47 million tonnes of wheat.
These exports were made from stocks managed by the central government, which were overflowing with over 60 million tonnes last year despite a severe drought in the country.
Due to a high minimum support price government fixes annually for purchase of foodgrains from farmers, not many private buyers or state governments come forward to purchase the farmers' stock.
This has resulted in the central government doing large-scale purchase, much higher than the norms for reserves.
Exporters are able to purchase stocks that they require from the Food Corporation of India (FCI), which manages the government's stocks, at prices fixed at intervals.
During the current financial year, shipment of foodgrains in September was the highest so far, with exports of 1.13 million tonnes, comprising 607,000 tonnes of wheat and 527,000 tonnes of rice.
This year, India expects to surpass the exports of 2002-03, when 10.61 million tonnes of foodgrains were shipped, according to the food ministry.
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2003.