Food minister Sharad Yadav today asked the foodgrain exporters to resolve their problems with the help of the committee set up for this purpose by the food ministry and not to resort to trade malpractices.
The exporters should do their business in a clean and fair manner, complying with the guidelines laid down by the government.
Yadav was inaugurating a seminar on "strategies for foodgrain exports" organised jointly by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).
He pointed out that in past two years 6 million tonnes of rice had been lifted from the FCI godowns for exports to 35 countries.
Besides, about 9 million tonnes of wheat had been exported to 24 countries. Basmati rice exports had touched 6.6 lakh tonnes in 2001-02.
He said the country had a stock of 35.64 million tonnes of wheat and 15.77 million tonnes of rice on October 1 this year.
This was far in excess of the butter stock norm of 11.6 million tonnes of wheat and 6.5 million tonnes of rice.
The total offtake of foodgrains by states from the central pool increased from 17.88 million tonnes in 2000-01 to 31.3 million tonnes in 2001-02.
In the current year, till September 2002, the total offtake of wheat and rice together was 22.34 million tonnes.
Addressing the seminar, former FCI chairman Bhure Lal said the exporter
