April 6, 2012

India in talks with Iran to lift wheat import ban

India is now in discussions with Iran to lift its 16-year old wheat import ban, as Iran seeks new suppliers in view of possible sanctions and a poor harvest, a government official said.

Iran, which buys its wheat from Australia, Canada and Kazakhstan, is now facing the US sanctions. It wants to increase imports of food grains to hedge against the growing impact of sanctions and poor crops due to bad weather.

Iran is keen on importing the Indian wheat now, but faces the hurdles of quality guidelines. Suspecting a fungal disease, Iran in 1996 had banned Indian wheat. The West Asian nation had suspected that Indian wheat was infested with 'Karnal bunt'-- the fungal disease commonly found in north India.

"The Agriculture Ministry is now discussing with the Iran government with regard to quality standards for Indian wheat and lift the ban," a senior government official said.

The issue of 'Karnal bunt' disease has been taken up seriously because Iranian traders have made wheat import requests to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), the official said.

APEDA is the export promotion body for farm items. Karnal bunt, a fungal disease of wheat, was first reported in 1931 from Karnal, Haryana. The disease primarily spreads through contaminated seeds.

Noting that Iran presents huge opportunities in exports of wheat, a senior APEDA official said, "At least 1.5 million tonnes of wheat can be exported if Iran removes the ban."

India, which lifted four year-old ban on wheat exports in September 2011, is in a comfortable situation to sell the grain abroad due to record production of 88.31 million tones in the 2011-12 crop year (July-June).

Even the stockpiles in the government godowns are above the required levels. Besides wheat, Iran is also looking at importing rice, sugar and tea from India.