The total export of wheat and rice has exceeded 15 million tonnes, valued at over Rs 6,656 crore, since the government began supplying the grains to exporters from official stocks at reduced rates in November 2000. This includes 8.42 million tonnes of wheat and 6.76 million tonnes of rice.
Of this, export orders for nearly 1.4 million tonnes of wheat and 2.4 million tonnes of rice have been secured by exporters since July 2002.
This has made India the sixth largest exporter of wheat and second largest seller of rice overseas. If the trend continued, India would overtake Thailand to emerge as the largest exporter of rice during the current year.
More From This Section
Till last week-end, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) had received payments for the supply of 15.18 million tonnes of wheat and rice against firm export orders. Of this, 13.48 million tonnes (8.21 million tonnes wheat and 5.27 million tonnes rice) had already been lifted by the exporters for shipment abroad.
Despite exports and increased offtake of foodgrains for welfare schemes, total grain held in stock remained high.
On August 1, 2002, the Central grain pool had 59.78 million tonnes of the two staple cereals. The pool included 39.65 million tonnes of wheat and 20.12 million tonnes of rice.
This would rise as FCI was expected to procure about 16 million tonnes of rice from the new crop. The harvesting of fresh kharif paddy would be taken up soon.
While the Indian wheat was going to 23 countries, rice was exported to 33 destinations. Wheat buyers included Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Yemen and UAE.
Importers of Indian rice included Bahrain, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Yemen and the UAE.
Besides the supply of subsidised grains from official stocks for exports, several other measures taken by the government helped in boosting cereal exports. These included lifting of quantitative restrictions on exports and relaxation of procedural norms, such as doing away with the requirement of registration with the Agricultural and Processed Foods Export Development Authority (APEDA).
An empowered committee has been set up to take quick decisions on matters relating to cereal exports. Besides, the government has assured exporters that FCI