Iranian delegation in India to explore wheat imports.

NEW DELHI: An Iranian delegation is in India on a week-long visit to explore possibility of importing wheat from India, which has surplus stocks after record production.

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' -- a fungal disease.

"Iran is concerned about Karnal bunt disease. The two-member expert team is here for a week till June 18 to assess the quality norms and see if there is any possibility to import," a senior Agriculture Ministry official told.

At present, the team is in Haryana and will also be visiting Punjab and Madhya Pradesh to check whether the quality of wheat sample tested in quarantine labs and the grain lying in government godowns are still the same, he said.

Noting that Iran presents huge opportunities in wheat exports if it removes the ban, the official said however, the deal with the West Asian nation is unlikely to happen during the current visit.

The Agriculture Ministry is coordinating with the Iran government with regard to the quality issue in wheat exports because Iranian traders have made import requests to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

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.

India, which lifted four-year-old ban on wheat exports in September 2011, wants to export wheat as its godowns are overflowing due to record production of 90.23 million tonnes.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com