Food ministry requests Malaysia to import grain in bulk to ease storage crises

In a bid to ease storage crises, Indian Food Minister K V Thomas has asked Malaysia to explore the possibility of importing the grain in bulk from India as the wheat stocks are available in plenty here. The Food Minister has placed this request after meeting Malaysia’s plantation industries and commodities minister, part of Malaysian delegation, is on a 6-day visit to India to strengthen bilateral relations which has touched a record $12.5 billion in 2011.

Being the world's second-largest producer, India is struggling with problem of plenty after an estimated record output of 90.23 million tonne in the 2011-12 crop year (July-June). Meanwhile, Government agencies have procured a total of 353,23,772 tonne of wheat as on June 4, 2012, which is a record as compared to the last year’s procurement, which stood at 263,88,624 tonne.

Further, India is planning to exports food-grains as rice and wheat stocks in the government godowns have already crossed 70 mt, against the storage capacity of 63 mt due to record procurement in the last few years following huge production.