Farmers fume in India

Khanna – When New Delhi banned wheat exports, it provoked consternation abroad and drove the price of the cereal even higher.

Now Indian farmers and traders are fuming they have been denied a windfall, as domestic prices have plummeted.

India is the world’s second-biggest wheat producer, but the government – the country’s biggest buyer – said it chose to protect food security for its mammoth population despite inflation concerns.

The move, along with dwindling global supplies from Russia and Ukraine – both among the world’s top five wheat exporters – sent prices to all-time highs on commodity exchanges in Chicago and Europe.

But at Asia’s largest grain market in Khanna, in India’s breadbasket state of Punjab, values went the other way.

Thousands of farmers from the wheat-growing region sell their produce at the facility.

From 2 300 rupees (about R470) per 100kg before the export ban, prices slumped to 2 015 rupees – the government-set minimum price.

The price fall represents the difference between a bumper payout and heartache, India’s hundreds of millions of small farmers say. –