India will import food to meet shortages: Mukherjee
Sunday, 23 August 2009
NEW DELHI, Aug. 22 (Bloomberg): India will import food items such as edible oil and lentils to meet any shortage caused by the driest monsoon in seven years, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.
Monsoon deficiency is a "serious concern" and will disrupt farming, hydroelectric power generation and the recharging of reservoirs, he told a meeting of state food ministers in New Delhi today. India has adequate stockpiles of wheat and rice from record government purchases from harvests last year, he said.
The monsoon season, which brings about three-quarters of the nation's annual rainfall, may be the driest since 2002, with 246 of the nation's 626 districts declaring drought, the weather bureau said last week. Inadequate rain may shave as much as 1 per centage point off the nation's economic growth this year, Raghuram Rajan, an adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said on Aug. 12.
The rainfall deficit in the season started June 1 narrowed to 26 per cent from 29 per cent, the weather office said yesterday. The shortfall narrowed to 2 per cent below average in the week ended Aug. 19, compared with 56 per cent in the previous week.
India will import edible oils and lentils as the gap between domestic supplies and demand widens, Mukherjee said. The government will not publicly announce its import plans, he said.
"The moment news spreads that India is going for heavy doses of imports, it automatically has the impact of market prices being jacked up," he said.
India turned a net importer of sugar for the first time since 2006 after inadequate rain in July 2008 reduced cane yields, lowering output by half. The South Asian nation has contracted to import 4 million tons of raw sugar this year to meet a shortfall in supplies.
Vegetable oil imports by India, which meets almost half its demand through overseas purchases, may climb to a record in the year to November as dry weather hurts oilseed crops, a processors' group said on Aug. 13. Purchases in the year ending Oct. 31 may jump 27 per cent to 8 million tons, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India said.
Monsoon deficiency is a "serious concern" and will disrupt farming, hydroelectric power generation and the recharging of reservoirs, he told a meeting of state food ministers in New Delhi today. India has adequate stockpiles of wheat and rice from record government purchases from harvests last year, he said.
The monsoon season, which brings about three-quarters of the nation's annual rainfall, may be the driest since 2002, with 246 of the nation's 626 districts declaring drought, the weather bureau said last week. Inadequate rain may shave as much as 1 per centage point off the nation's economic growth this year, Raghuram Rajan, an adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said on Aug. 12.
The rainfall deficit in the season started June 1 narrowed to 26 per cent from 29 per cent, the weather office said yesterday. The shortfall narrowed to 2 per cent below average in the week ended Aug. 19, compared with 56 per cent in the previous week.
India will import edible oils and lentils as the gap between domestic supplies and demand widens, Mukherjee said. The government will not publicly announce its import plans, he said.
"The moment news spreads that India is going for heavy doses of imports, it automatically has the impact of market prices being jacked up," he said.
India turned a net importer of sugar for the first time since 2006 after inadequate rain in July 2008 reduced cane yields, lowering output by half. The South Asian nation has contracted to import 4 million tons of raw sugar this year to meet a shortfall in supplies.
Vegetable oil imports by India, which meets almost half its demand through overseas purchases, may climb to a record in the year to November as dry weather hurts oilseed crops, a processors' group said on Aug. 13. Purchases in the year ending Oct. 31 may jump 27 per cent to 8 million tons, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India said.