Pulses Imports Down 26% to 2.6 Million Tonne in FY11.

India's pulses imports declined by 26% to 2.6 million tonnes in the 2010-11 fiscal on the back of record production.

"As per the Directorate of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics data (provisional), during 2010-11, a quantity of 2.6 million tonnes of pulses was imported," Food Minister KV Thomas said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The country had imported 3.5 million tonnes of pulses in the 2009-10 fiscal.

The country is estimated to have produced a record 18.09 million tonnes of pulses in the 2010-11 crop year (July-June), as against 14.66 million tonnes in the previous year.

India is the world's largest producer of pulses, but still needs to import large quantities to bridge the gap between domestic demand and supply.

Apart from private traders, state-owned trading firms MMTC, PEC, STC and cooperative major Nafed import pulses.

On prices, Thomas said the rates for select pulses have declined in the past one year.

"The retail prices of pulses such as tur dal, moong dal and urad dal have showed a steady declining trend over the last one year in metros -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai," Thomas said.

Source : moneycontrol.com