Pulses hot on imports failure

The cancellation of about 80 per cent of government pulses import tender a month back together with rising domestic demand have led to a spurt of 12-14 per cent in the prices of pulses, particularly chana and urad.

Government corporations like Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and Projects Equipment Corporation (PEC) had together floated tenders for importing about 2.61 lakh tonne pulses since June. But they finalised import of only 55,000 tonne.

In June, Nafed had tried importing 45,000 tonne pulses but import of only 30,000 tonne was finalised. Urad and moong was imported but it failed to import any chana.

In July, MMTC and PEC had floated tenders to import 1.1 lakh tonne and 76,000 tonne pulses, respectively. However, despite sufficient offers both the tenders were cancelled. High prices quoted in tenders were cited as a reason for not finalising imports.

In August, MMTC invited bids for importing 15,000 tonne chana but only 5000 tonne got finalised.

However, Nafed has finalised contracts for importing 12,000 tonne urad and 7,300 tonne moong in August. While the government has not been able to import 2.61 lakh tonne pulses, a total of 7.1 lakh tonne of pulses has been contracted for import by private traders since June 8 when the import duty on pulses was brought down to zero. But these traders would release most of these stocks when the prices would rise further, mainly during mid September and October.

"The private traders have been able to import even at higher tags as they anticipate domestic prices to jump over the next couple of months.

This would enable them to make profits. However, the government would have to sell imported pulses at subsidy as its purpose is to stablise domestic prices. This partly explains the reluctance to import at high prices", said K.C.Bhartia, the president of Pulses Importers' Association.

Over the last one month, the spot price of chana at the MCX rose from Rs 2,400 a quintal to Rs 2,662 while the spot price of urad at the MCX has increased from Rs 2,966 a quintal to Rs 3,381, respectively.