Pressure on agri commodity prices likely to continue: Rahul Kullar

06 Jul 2011 Evaluate

Just a week before the Empowered Group of Minister’s (EGoM) meet to review the national food security bill and export ban on wheat and non basmati rice, Commerce Secretary Rahul Kullar said that pressure is likely to stay on agri commodity prices. However, he said that the government policies should not reflect a 'knee-jerk reaction'.

The food ministry has moved a suggestion to export 2 million tonnes of wheat and 1 million tonnes non basmati rice, an EGoM on food is scheduled to meet on July 11, to consider the proposal of food ministry and review the National Advisory Council’s draft on food security bill.  Government had banned the export of wheat in February 2007 and export of non basmati rice in April 2008, on the backdrop of high food inflation.

At the WTO function, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar, said, 'My own sense is that the pressure on agri prices is going to continue. I also think that domestically the (pressure on) prices are going to continue even more,' on the issue of export of wheat and non basmati rice he said the issue would be discussed next week.

However, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said that his ministry is not pushing for foodgrains export in view of the proposed National Food Security Bill. On June 5, he said 'We are not in a position to push for export of foodgrains because we are waiting for the proposed National Food Security Bill, which is likely to come up in Parliament.'

India’s policy on foodgrains export is expected to be determined by the draft of National Food Security Bill, which targets to provide legal right over subsidized foodgrains to poor. The food ministry had recommended covering around 75% of the India’s population in the proposed National Food Security Bill.

At present government’s godowns are overflowing with more than 65 million tonnes of foodgrains, whereas the storage capacity is only 62.23 million tonnes. For the current financial year, ministry of agriculture had pegged total foodgrains output at 245 million tonnes, as compared to 235.88 million tonnes from 2010-11.

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