Falling rupee to make imported pulse costlier

Ishta Vohra NEW DELHI

 IMPORT of pulses is expected to increase steadily over the next ten years as demand is growing while domestic production is stagnant. This could be bad news for consumers as the rupee is depreciating, pushing up the price of imported pulses.
    Global producers are also taking advantage of India's pulse shortfall by hiking their prices, according to Assocham's Pulse Production Report 2008. According to the study, imports would increase to 27 lakh tonnes by 2019-20. Canada, Australia, Myanmar would be major suppliers of the commodity to India, benefiting from growing demand and rising prices.
    Since virtually every household in the country uses pulses, the report is significant. The government is also concerned since prices of urad, moong, masur and gram has shot up due to shortage in domestic supplies and higher import prices. This is affecting the per capita consumption of pulses, which has plummeted to 12.7 kg/year now from a peak of 27.3 kg/year attained in 1958-59. The negative CAGR of 1.58% is a cause of concern, according to Assocham's director general D S Rawat. Pulses are a key source of protein for the vegetarian sections of the population.
    India is the world leader in pulses production, contributing about 24% or 14.5 million tonnes to the global production of 61.33 million tonnes in 2007. However, production has registered a paltry growth at CAGR of 0.26% over the last five decades. Production has been virtually stagnant over the past decade, he added.
    The lack of growth in production has led to growth in imports, leaving the country dependent on overseas suppliers for the past 30 years. India's pulses imports have risen at a CAGR of 10.38%, with net imports rising from 4.6 lakh tonnes in 1998-99 to 20.4 lakh tonnes in 2006-07. Canada, Myanmar, Australia, and the US contribute about 40%, 27%, 9% and 6%, respectively, to the country's pulses basket. The quantum of pulse import from Canada has more than doubled during the last five years. In 2006-07, Canada's share in pulses import touched 905.325 tonnes, out of India's total imports of 2,255.649 thousand tonnes.
Partial relaxation of ban on non-basmati rice exports likely
NEW DELHI: The group of ministers (GoM) on food, which will meet on November 3 to review food prices, may partially relax the total ban on non-basmati exports, commerce secretary GK Pillai has said, reports Our Bureau. He, however, added that the total export ban will not be lifted. The GoM is also expected to re-impose import duties on edible oil. Mr Pillai was speaking to mediapersons after a meeting organised by the Council for Leather Exports in the Capital on Wednesday. In a bid to tackle rising inflation, the government had announced ban on export of non-basmati rice on March 31. It had also scrapped the import duty on crude edible oil and brought down the customs duty on refined edible oil to 7.5%.