Government will import 5 lakh tonnes (LT) of maize to check price rise and hoarding in wake of fall in domestic production of the crop. As per Agriculture Ministry’s third advance estimate, the production of maize in the country is estimated to have declined to 21.02 million tonnes (MT) in 2015-16 from 23.67 MT in the previous year.
The Commerce and Industry Ministry has approved importing of maize under Tariff Rate Quota by state trading enterprise. The import duty presently paid for maize is 50% which is however 0% under the Tariff Rate Quota Scheme. State-owned trading firm PEC had invited bids for import of 50,000 tonnes of maize (non-genetically modified) in June.
India has been traditionally a major corn exporter to South-east Asia but drought and rising domestic demand has cut export supplies. Poultry sector and starch manufacturers are the major consumer of maize.