Food Grains Export Unlikely in Near Term.

The Centre would not allow export of wheat and rice in the near term as it aims to build a larger grain buffer, a senior government official said on Wednesday. “Stocks are higher but not higher to an extent where we can export,” Siraj Hussain, managing director, Food Corporation of India (FCI), said while addressing a conference on Food Inflation, Security and Price Outlook, in New Delhi.

Hussain said the government had set a target of building an extra 15 million tonnes of storage capacity to check huge losses due to inadequate facilities. He said any decision to free grain exports would only be taken after the proposed Food Security Act comes into force. The Act plans to provide cheap food grains to the poor from India’s massive stock piles. India has faced rising calls to allow overseas sales of wheat and rice because government stocks are rotting.

The government had banned wheat exports in February 2007 and shipments of non-Basmati rice in April 2008 to control inflation. “It’s only when the country meets the requirements of two consecutive years of droughts that we can say there is surplus of food grains,” Hussain said.

The FCI chief said food grain output needed to be enhanced to ensure the country’s food security in the long term. Similarly, the level of procurement of wheat and rice should be raised to meet the requirement of ration shops.

“By 2020, the demand of food grains in the country is likely to go up by 35-40 million tonnes to the level of 250-260 million tonnes,” he said.

Source : fnbnews.com