“Surplus Overall Grain Availability In The Country, No Move To Curb Wheat Export”

New Delhi, May 5 (TNA) India has a comfortable food situation with an overall surplus availability of grains and stocks expected to be higher than the minimum requirement for the next one year, Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), Sudhanshu Pandey has said.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday, he said that after meeting the requirement of welfare schemes in the year ahead, on April 1, 2023, India would have stocks of 80 LMT of wheat, well above the minimum requirement of 75 LMT. India would have surplus wheat even though production was expected to 1050 LMT, slightly lower than the initial estimate of 1110 LMT in FY 23.

Responding to a question on lower procurement of wheat, Pandey said that due to higher market prices, large quantity of wheat was being bought by traders at a higher rate than MSP (Minimum Support Price), which was good for the farmers.

The Secretary underlined the surplus availability of rice as well. He said, “Our rice procurement last year was about 600 LMT and this year same figure is expected. Our annual requirement for NFSA is roughly about 350 LMT. So, we are in a surplus situation.”

Talking about the wheat exports, Sudhanshu Pandey said that till now 40 LMT wheat has been contracted for export and about 11 LMT has been exported in April 2022. He informed that after Egypt, Turkey had also given approval for import of Indian wheat.

From June, wheat from Argentina and Australia would start arriving in the international markets, so this was the opportune time for exporters for sell wheat in the international markets.