Decision on wheat import soon, high imports unlikely
Domestic price stability and the estimated high global wheat output may prompt the government to import about three lakh tonnes of foodgrain against tenders of 10 lakh tonnes received from international suppliers.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: Domestic price stability and the estimated high global wheat output may prompt the government to import about three lakh tonnes of foodgrain against tenders of 10 lakh tonnes received from international suppliers.
"The current wheat price of 262 dollars plus 10 dollars for cargo handling would make its price quite high and in the wake of a possible fall in it in the future, we may chose to wait for a few more months before undertaking larger imports," a senior food ministry official said.
The official said, in the meantime, the government may import three lakh tonnes of wheat this year. Global wheat output is expected to touch 623 million tonnes as against 593 million tonnes last year.
The government is likely to take a final decision on STC wheat import within a day or two.
Some officials do not rule out referring the wheat import issue to the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) before taking any final decision on the matter.
It was on the recommendations of EGOM that government asked STC to float tenders for import of 10 lakh tonnes of wheat by August 15.
Though the domestic wheat procurement is expected to fall short of the targeted 150 lakh tonnes by about 30 lakh tonnes, the government is positive on high wheat availability due to its stable prices.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had earlier attributed the slow wheat procurement to farmers' preference for switching over to man-made harvesting for extracting maximum straw due to its high domestic prices.
Meanwhile, wheat procurement by government agencies reached 102.36 lakh tonnes as on Sunday.
The ratio between procurement and wheat arrival in the markets has so far been satisfactory though government is concerned over low arrivals, the officials said.
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