India to keep up wheat exports amid shortage
India 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 tonnes of wheat until July. India exported a million tonnes of wheat in April. India mainly exports wheat to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
A notice in the government gazette by the Directorate of Foreign Trade said a spike in global prices for wheat was threatening the food security of India and neighbouring and vulnerable countries.
A key aim of restrictions on exports is to control rising domestic prices. Global wheat prices have risen by more than 40 per cent 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 February 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-shattering heatwave that is stunting production.
He said India’s wheat production this year has come down by 3 million tonnes from 106 million tonnes last year. Wheat prices have shot up by 20-40 per cent in India.
“The current rise in prices seems to be a panic reaction rather than a reaction based on a genuine collapse in supply or a sudden shooting of demand,” 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 tonnes of the grain in 2022-23, looking to capitalise 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 tonnes of wheat were consumed in India last year out of a total production of 109 million tonnes, Subrahmanyam said, adding that India exported 7 million tonnes of wheat last year.