Govt extends duty-free yellow pea imports till March 2026

As part of efforts to cool the prices of pulses, India has extended permission for duty-free imports of yellow peas until March 31, 2026 with immediate effect, according to a government order issued late on Friday.

The South Asian nation is the world's biggest importer of yellow peas, which it imports mainly from Canada and Russia.

Previously, the Indian government extended the free import policy for Yellow peas for three months in march 2025, which was set to expire on May 31, 2025.


Earlier, the free import policy for yellow peas was set to expire on February 28, 2025.

The government had initially allowed the duty-free import of yellow peas in December 2023 and subsequently extended it thrice till February 28.

According to trade data, India is estimated to have imported 6.63 million tonnes of pulses in 2024, compared with 3.31 million tonnes in 2023. The previous record of imports, 6.27 million tonnes, was registered in 2017. Yellow peas, imports of which were made duty free in 2023, had the largest share in the import basket of pulses at 2.9 million tonnes, or 45% of the total. India had not imported yellow peas in the previous year.