India open to exporting wheat to needy nations despite ban
India on Sunday said it would keep a window open to export wheat to food-deficit countries at the government level despite restrictions announced two days earlier.
India’s Commerce Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam told reporters the government will also allow private companies to meet previous commitments to export nearly 4.3 million tons of wheat until July. India exported 1 million tons of wheat in April.
India mainly exports wheat to neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
A notice in the government gazete by the Directorate of Foreign Trade on Friday said a spike in global prices for wheat was threatening the food security of India and neighboring and vulnerable countries.
A key aim of restrictions on exports is to control risingdomesticprices.globalwheatpriceshaverisen by more than 40% since the beginning of the year.
Before the war, Ukraine and Russia accounted for a third of global wheat and barley exports. Since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, Ukraine’s ports have been blocked and civilian infrastructure and grain silos have been destroyed.
At the same time, India’s own wheat harvest has suffered from a record-shatering heat wave that is stunting production.
He said India’s wheat production this year has come down by three million tons from 106 million tons last year. wheat prices have shot up by 20-40% in India.
“The current rise in prices seems to be a panic reaction rather than a reaction based on a genuine collapseinsupplyorasuddenshootingofdemand,” Subrahmanyam said.
Even though it is the world’s second-largest producer of wheat, India consumes most of the wheat it produces. It had set a goal of exporting 10 million tons of the grain in 2022-23, looking to capitalize on the global disruptions to wheat supplies from the war and find new markets for its wheat in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Up to 90 million tons of wheat were consumed in India last year out of a total production of 109 million tons, Subrahmanyam said, adding that India exported 7 million tons of wheat last year.
EGYPT TO BUY WHEAT FROM INDIA: Egypt’s government has agreed to buy half a million tonnes of wheat from India, Egyptian Supply Minister Aly Moselhy told Reuters on Sunday.
Egypt, one of the world’s biggest wheat importers, is looking for alternatives to Black Sea grain exports which face disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both major wheat exporters to Egypt.
“We have agreed to buy half a million tonnes from India,” Moselhy said, speaking on the sidelines of a press conference.
New Delhi announced a ban on wheat exports on Saturday amid a scorching heat wave that has curtailed domestic production and driven up domestic prices.
However, Moselhy said during the press conference the Indian ban would not apply to the deal with Egypt.
He also said the Egyptian cabinet had given approval for government purchaser the General Authority for Supply Commodities to circumvent its tender process and purchase wheat directly from countries or companies.
Egypt was also in talks with Kazakhstan, France, and Argentina, he said.
Egypt has four months’ worth of strategic at reserves and six months of vegetable oils, the country’s prime minister said earlier in the day.
Officials say that following procurement of the ongoing local harvest, Egyptian wheat reserves would be sufficient until the end of the year.
Separately, Agriculture ministers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations on Saturday condemned India’s decision to ban unapproved wheat exports ater the country was hit by a punishing heatwave.
“If everyone starts to impose export restrictions or to close markets, that would worsen the crisis,” German agriculture minister Cem Ozdemir said at a press conference in Stutgart.
India on Saturday banned wheat exports without prior government approval ater recent scorching temperatures hit production, in a blow to countries affected by supply shortages because of the war in Ukraine.
India,theworld’ssecond-largestwheatproducer, said that factors including lower wheat production and sharply higher global prices because of the war meant that it was now worried about its own “food security”.
All export deals agreed before the directive issued on Friday could still be honoured, but all future shipments needed to have government approval.
However, exports could also take place if New Delhi approved a request by other governments “to meet their food security needs.”
The decision came as global agricultural markets were under severe stress due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Thetraditionalbreadbaskethasseenshipments disrupted, with the Ukrainian agriculture minister travelling to Stutgart for discussions with g7 colleagues on geting its produce out.
India says it will keep a window open to export wheat to fooddeficit countries at the government level despite an export ban announced on Friday