Basmati rice, wheat export bans may be lifted

  • 30/05/2008

  • Business Standard (New Delhi)

India will review bans on exports of wheat and basmati rice, but shipments of other grades of rice will not be allowed at least until November, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said. India last exported wheat in the 2003-04 fiscal year and became an importer in the past two years, but a bumper crop has helped the government purchase from local farmers a record 24.8 million tonnes of the staple this year. Pawar said on Thursday that a government panel, called the Empowered Group of Ministers , (EGoM), would soon consider lifting the ban on wheat exports. "We will think. There is an EGoM. We will discuss it in the EGoM," Pawar said. He said India had 5.8 million tonnes of wheat on April 1 against a target of 4 million tonnes and the record procurement had helped stocks swell so much that the government had enough supplies for 21 months for subsidized supply.