India to halt rice, wheat export to Bangladesh

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Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
India has decided to halt export of rice and wheat to Bangladesh to meet possible shortages, that might be triggered by low monsoon rains.
Indian farm minister Sharad Pawar told the upper house of parliament Friday that the country ended export through 'diplomatic channels," according to Bloomberg website.
Bangladesh Commerce Minister M Faruk Khan told the FE that the Indian decision would not affect Bangladesh much as it had sufficient stocks of rice and wheat.
"We had a bumper crop and are expecting to have a good harvest in the coming months," he said, adding that the country has enough time to import rice from alternative sources like Thailand and Vietnam in times of shortage.
About the export of aromatic rice from Bangladesh, he said the government is thinking of allowing export of only 10,000 tonnes of the food grain.
"Bangladeshi expatriates, especially restaurant owners in England and other parts of the world, have requested us to allow the export," he said adding that under no circumstances, the country will allow export of any other variety of rice.
In July-May period of the last fiscal, letters of credit (LCs) worth $51 million were opened for rice import and LCs worth $741 million were opened for wheat import.
India earlier banned overseas sales of wheat in February 2007 and shipments of non-basmati rice in April 2008, but it allowed sales to African nations, Nepal and Bangladesh from September last year.
The Indian government also scrapped a plan to export 900,000 tonnes of wheat on July 13, the website said.
AFP adds: Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told parliament the June-September monsoon had been "deficient" across India, delaying sowing and planting in key agricultural states such as Punjab and Haryana.
"The monsoon this year has been weak and erratic in its progress, resulting in late sowing of (paddy) crops," Pawar said during a debate on agricultural output.
The minister said rainfall nationwide was down 19 per cent on the previous year with a shortfall of 38 per cent in the northwest and 43 per cent in the northeast.
"Rice area and productivity may be adversely impacted which could be compensated to some extent by cultivating oilseeds, pulses and cereals," he said, noting the alternative sowing project was part of the emergency plan.
"The (present) coverage under paddy is 115,000 hectares (280,000 acres), compared to 145,000 hectares last year," he said, adding that the shortfall had been mainly reported from four states.
Nearly two-thirds of India's 1.1 billion population still depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
The monsoon is crucial because 60 percent of India's 140 million cultivable hectares is rain-dependent while the rest is irrigated.
The farm sector accounts for nearly 16 percent of India's gross domestic product.
Despite subsidies to farmers, India's agriculture sector expanded only 1.6 per cent in the financial year ended March 31, compared to growth of around 4.5 per cent in recent years.
Pawar also announced New Delhi would ban scheduled exports of non-premium varieties of rice as well as wheat as part of its contingency plans but insisted national food stocks were adequate to last 13 more months.