Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said he expected food prices to start falling with the harvest of winter crop this month and also on the back of imports of essential commodities.
“We are doing whatever is possible. Private sector undertakings are also importing. We hope, the rabi harvest has a moderating effect on the prices of foodgrain,” he said here.
Rabi (winter) crop is due for harvest in April and is expected to more than make up for the shortfall in foodgrain production in the last Khariff season, when the rainfall was deficient.
Food inflation for the week ended March 20 was ruling at 16.35 per cent, but items such as sugar and pulses, which were driving inflation until recently, have seen prices softening due to imports.
He said prices of sugar had come down globally on supply from Brazil, and hoped the prices would fall further.
“Very few countries produce pulses and the international prices are also high. The same is the case with sugar. There is a shortfall of about 9 million tonnes,” Mukherjee said, adding that the country had to import about 2 million tonnes of edible oil.
He, however, said, despite allowing duty-free imports adequate supply of the commodities was not available.
India needed 18 million tonnes of pulses, while production was only 14 million tonnes. “There is a shortfall of 4 million tonnes and we have to import it,” Mukherjee pointed out.
