India Can Consider Limited Exports Of Rice, Wheat, Sugar - Minister.

The Indian government can think about allowing limited exports of wheat, rice and sugar as the country is heading for a bumper crop, the country's farm minister said. Any decision on supplies of grains and sugar from India will help cool global food prices. It is also considering allowing unrestricted exports of 500,000 tons of white sugar for the first time in two years as it expects local output of 24.5 million tons in the year to Sept. 30 will exceed demand.We have got adequate food grain stocks, and we are expecting a very good wheat crop this year, Sharad Pawar said. This is the right time to give a thought to allow limited exports.

India, the world's second-largest producer of wheat and rice, has maintained a three-year general ban on the grains' exports to boost local stocks, but it recently allowed the shipment of 150,000 tons of common grades of rice grown mainly in southern India.

The minister's suggestions come as global demand for rice rises and international wheat prices are at their highest since food riots spread across the globe in 2008. The world sugar deficit is also expected to be around 700,000 tons, compared with an earlier forecast of a surplus, according to Macquarie Commodities Research.

Earlier this month, Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar said India needed to export some quantities of grains to make space for fresh crops in its almost-choked warehouses.

As of Feb. 1, the government's rice and wheat stocks touched 47.17 million tons, nearly double its requirement for welfare programs.

State-run Food Corp. of India, the government's main arm for grains procurement, is aiming to buy a record 26 million metric tons of wheat from farmers this marketing year through June on expectations of a bumper crop, which may worsen the storage problem.

Pawar said the country's wheat output in 2010-11 may cross the government's recent estimate of 81.47 million tons, to hit a record 84 million tons if the current cooling of temperatures--beneficial to the key winter crop--extends until mid-March or April.

Separately, Pawar said a ministerial panel is expected to consider this week whether to cut the floor price of $600 per ton for onion exports because international prices of many varieties are hovering around $300 per ton, making shipments from India difficult.

This month, India lifted a nearly two-month ban on onion exports after supplies from late-sown crop varieties sent local prices crashing from their peaks in December, but it kept a high floor price for the shipment to balance the interests of farmers with consumers.

Source : indiainfoline.com