"We are waiting for the Rabi season to be over, and then we can get a good fix on how much wheat has come in. We will make a decision on wheat exports after taking stock of how much wheat has come in during the Rabi season," said the Commerce Secretary, Dr Rahul Khullar, at the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) event. Dr Khullar went on to add that the ministry is concerned about the storage problem of the grain and is working to resolve the issue.

 

According to government data, the wheat stock in the central pool was 183.88 lakh (18,388,000) tonnes as on March 1, 2010, whereas, the buffer requirement as of April 1 is only 40 lakh (four million) tonnes.

 

Meanwhile, Dr Khullar has set a target of achieving US$1 billion exports of organic foods in the next five years. "Five years from now, we should aim at achieving US$1 billion in organic products export by harnessing the potential in other products such as organic cotton and others," he said.