Wheat imports not before Aug: Govt

India, the world's biggest wheat producer after China, may not have to import the grain before August because the country has sufficient stockpiles, Commerce Secretary G K Pillai said.

The country has imported almost 1.8 million tonnes of wheat since July to build stockpiles. Purchases in the year ending June may drop to 2 million tonnes, less than a third of the previous year, the US Department of Agriculture said on January 11.

A six-month halt in imports would take some pressure from global wheat supplies, which are forecast by the USDA to fall by 12 per cent to 109.7 million tonnes in the year ending May 31. It may also slow a rally in wheat prices, which more than doubled in the past year and reached a record $11.53 a bushel on February 11.

"We have enough in the buffer stocks,'' Pillai told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Wheat stockpiles at state warehouses may total 5.3 million tonnes by April 1, more than the 4 million tonnes needed for emergencies, because of recent imports, Alok Sinha, Chairman of state-owned Food Corp of India, the nation's biggest buyer of food grains, said on February 8.

The government, which will start purchases of the grain from the new crop in April, needs 1 million tonnes a month to distribute to the poor. It had 8.5 million tonnes of wheat at its warehouses as of February 8, Sinha said.

The government plans to buy 15 million tonnes of the grain from the farmers, up 35 per cent from a year earlier, he said.