Rake crisis hits grain sales to Bangladesh

Foodgrain exports by land have been hit by shortage of railway rakes. Orders worth of 2.2 million tonne of foodgrain, booked before August 2003, were pending.

Exporters were finding it difficult to move foodgrains from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns to ports.

S K Jain, eastern region chairman of Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO), said the problem was most acute in eastern India. Export contracts of 1.4 million tonnes had been picked up by regional exporters.

"Export to Bangladesh is badly hit though it is the third largest market for rice wheat and coarse grains. It can take up to four lakh tonne per month from India," he said.

Bangladesh can take up to 100 rakes per month while ports at Haldia and Kolkata can take up to four rakes. Direct rakes to Bangladesh were few and far between, an no rakes were available for ports, Jain complained.

Grain from north and north-west Indian states like Punjab and Haryana could not be moved to eastern India.

"Exporters have taken up the issue with Railways but without results. There should be equitable distribution of rakes," he said.

Some foodgrain cargo was being shipped through other east Indian ports like Kakinada and Vishakapatnam. Some rakes were available for loading at Kandla port for Bangladesh and other south east Asia bound vessels. In this way, exporters were shipping out around 1.4 lakh tonne per month.

Indian Railways was reportedly reluctant to send rakes to eastern India as there was no export cargo coming back from Bangladesh. Rakes had to come back vacant.

Exporters were now considering paying a premium for rakes in case they returned empty. Simultaneously, exporters would like the ban on sale of grain by FCI, in place from August 2003 on account of low buffer stock, to be lifted.

FCI had stocks of 26 million tonnes of grain which was its usual level. With a bumper crop expected this season of around 220 million tonnes, FIEO predicted a big jump in stocks unless existing stocks were released for export.

India can export 10 million tonne grain, worth $ 1.2 billion, Jain said. Around 2 million tonnes can be exported in the last quarter of 2003-4 through fresh orders, he claimed.

For the sake of long term relationship building with international buyers, FIEO would like a proper market-driven policy on trading in foodgrain.

Major buyers of Indian wheat included Indonesia, UAE, Bangladesh and Vietnam, while rice was sold to counties in Africa and west Asis besides Bangladesh.