Except basmati, export of commodities falls sharply

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 31

Amid anticipation of robust monsoon this year, there are expectations that it would bring smile on the faces of farmers, as they will be able to produce more which they haven’t been able to do in the past two years because of successive droughts. However, experts feel a lot would depend on the global commodity prices which have not been encouraging in the past few years.

Except basmati, the volume of exports of major commodities such as wheat, non-basmati rice, pulses and maize, have gone down significantly in the past three years due to weak global prices. 

In case of basmati, the lower global prices and increase in demand from countries like the UAE, Iraq, Iran etc, has boosted its exports from India in 2015-16. 

According to the data, in 2014-15, the basmati prices hovered between Rs 1,150 and Rs 4,000 a quintal, while in 2015-16, due to a bumper harvest in Punjab and Haryana, the price of the crop crashed and with the government’s intervention, it was between Rs 925 and Rs 3,100 per quintal. So, despite a bumper crop and increase in exports, the farmers were not benefitted due to lower global prices.

In the current fiscal, the exporters are optimistic and expect that the market will respond favourably on account of GI tag and other factors.

As far as wheat is concerned, exports are likely to be tepid in the current financial year also, mainly because of low international price of the commodity. However, experts say prospects might improve if the international prices improve or the value of Indian rupee declines significantly.

According to traders, the price of the Indian wheat is costlier as compared to imported one despite the government imposing import duty on it. “The Indian wheat in domestic market was hovering around Rs 1,600-2,500 per quintal till last month, depending upon the variety, whereas the imported variety from the US and Australia was available between Rs 1,300 and Rs 2,100 per quintal,” said D Chauhan, an exporter.

Even non-basmati rice exporters, who rely mainly on the African markets, are not optimistic about the outlook for exports in the absence of demand from Nigeria and the firming trend in domestic prices.  They are of the view that low prices in countries such as Pakistan and Vietnam has acted as deterrent to the exports. Even the exports of maize are likely to be under pressure on weak global demand.