December 1, 2010

India to have sufficient wheat despite lower global production

Lower global production of wheat is not likely to affect India's domestic availability of wheat, according to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.

Last week, the International Grains Council (IGC) stated in its grain market report that global wheat production during 2010-11 is projected at 643.9 million tonnes, as compared to the previous estimated production of 677.2 million tonnes during 2009-10. It shows a shortfall of nearly 5%.

According to the fourth advance estimates of production of food grains for 2009-10, released by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, the estimated wheat production in India during 2009-10 is 80.71 million tonnes. With this level of production, together with the opening balance of 16.12 million tonnes of wheat in the Central pool, availability of wheat in the country is more than the estimated requirements as of April 1, 2010. Therefore, the ministry notes that lower global production of wheat is not likely to affect domestic availability of wheat.

Currently, the government is not considering a proposal to ban the import of wheat by private mills, according to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.