India’s 2016-17 wheat imports are expected to increase more than five-fold to the highest in a decade, as a severe drought and unseasonal rains push domestic output down to the lowest since 2011. A spike in overseas purchases by India, the world’s second largest producer and consumer of the grain, could increase wheat prices which have fallen to near five-year lows of $4.42-1/4 a bushel amid ample world supplies.
Wheat imports into India are likely to reach 2.75 million tons in the year to June 2017. Imports would have been even higher, but surplus stocks from a series of earlier bumper harvests are expected to help pick up some of the slack in output.