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India's import of pulses may decline to 40-45 lakh tonnes this fiscal from 47.38 lakh tonnes in the previous year, as a good monsoon is likely to result in higher domestic production and lower retail prices, industry body IPGA Chairman Bimal Kothari said on Friday.
India Pulses & Grains Association (IPGA) also demanded that the government should frame a long-term policy for the Rs 2.5 lakh crore pulses market, as frequent changes in policies hurt the interest of all stakeholders. It also demanded imposition of import duties on yellow peas.
"Pulses imports are likely to be 40-45 lakh tonnes this fiscal," Kothari told reporters at 'Bharat Dalhan Seminar 2024' being held here in the national capital.
He said the imports would fall because of expectation of better production of pulses in 2024-25 crop year and also higher imports in the previous fiscal.
Kothari said the country imported 16 lakh tonnes of masoor dal last fiscal. "We need only 10 lakh tonnes imports of masoor dal".
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He said imports of yellow peas may also fall from 2023-24 level.
"This year monsoon rains have been better. Pulses acreage has gone up in Kharif season. The domestic production is expected to rise," Kothari said.
The IPGA Chairman said the prices of pulses in wholesale markets have come down in the last one month and are expected to ease further. Tur prices have come down by Rs 20 per kg in wholesale markets in the past one month.
"Pulses prices will not increase this year, rather it will keep falling," Kothari said.
Last month, the government informed Parliament that India's import of pulses rose 90 per cent annually to 47.38 lakh tonnes during 2023-24 to meet domestic demand.
Import of pulses stood at 24.66 lakh tonnes in 2020-21; 26.99 lakh tonnes in 2021-22 and 24.96 lakh tonnes in 2022-23.
In the current fiscal, India has imported 11.32 lakh tonnes of pulses during the April-May period.
Pulses production has increased from 163.23 lakh tonnes during 2015-16 to 244.93 lakh tonnes during 2023-24 (as per 3rd Advance Estimates).
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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