{"id":2811,"date":"2022-05-22T06:41:05","date_gmt":"2022-05-21T21:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/?p=2811"},"modified":"2022-12-10T11:29:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T02:29:19","slug":"india-wheat-export-ban-stays-despite-g7-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/news\/food-agriculture\/india-wheat-export-ban-stays-despite-g7-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"India wheat export ban stays despite G7 pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Ranjit Devraj<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[NEW DELHI] India\u2019s ban on wheat exports has denied the country\u2019s farmers and traders an opportunity to earn money from the sale of wheat in the global market that is currently facing shortages of the prime staple as a result of Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, say analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India produced an estimated<\/a> 107.9 million tonnes of the grain in 2020\u20142021, second only to China with 134.3 million tonnes. Russia came in third with 85.4 million tonnes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farmers\u2019<\/a> hopes were raised when the government<\/a> announced<\/a> on 12 May plans to export 10 million tonnes of wheat during 2022\u20142023 and identified Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Lebanon, Morocco, Philippines, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey and Vietnam among potential buyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But two days later, the trade<\/a> department under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry did an about-turn by issuing a notification<\/a> restricting wheat exports except through government channels and where private traders had already contracted export deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cTrade channels seek reliable suppliers for good reasons and India\u2019s credibility would therefore take a hit \u2014 future exports could be affected as a result\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Biswajit Dhar, Centre for WTO Studies<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRaising expectations of making good the global supply shortfall and then back-tracking creates a real problem,\u201d said Biswajit Dhar, professor and head of the Centre for WTO studies, New Delhi. \u201cTrade channels seek reliable suppliers for good reasons and India\u2019s credibility would therefore take a hit \u2014 future exports could be affected as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a press conference on 14 May, Commerce Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, explained that the export restrictions would help domestic food security and as well as neighbouring and vulnerable<\/a> countries. Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are among neighbouring countries that receive wheat from India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subrahmanyam said the restrictions could be lifted \u201cif the global supply and demand is the same and once cooling (of prices) happens\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\u2019s ban on wheat exports drew criticism from the Group of Seven (G7) countries with German food and agriculture<\/a> minister Cem \u00d6zdemir saying at a press conference in Stuttgart on 20 May that if countries begin imposing export restrictions it could only worsen shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the bulk of India\u2019s wheat production is consumed locally, the country has increasing presence in the global markets. In the 2021\u20142022 financial year India exported 7.85 million tonnes of the grain which was more than four times the 2.1 million tonnes exported in the preceding fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhar said it was interesting that China has defended<\/a> India\u2019s move to control wheat exports. \u201cBlaming India won\u2019t solve the food<\/a> problem, although there is no denying that India\u2019s move to stop its wheat exports may push up wheat prices a little bit,\u201d Global Times, the Chinese government-controlled portal said on 15 May. \u201cWhy won\u2019t the G7 nations themselves move to stabilise food market supply by hiking their exports?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were other compelling reasons that prompted the government to restrict wheat exports. \u201cPrivate traders, sensing the rise in global prices of wheat, were suddenly buying up stocks at rates higher than the government\u2019s minimum support price,\u201d said Devinder Sharma, food and policy analyst and founder member of Kisan Ekta Morcha, an umbrella organisation for more than 65 farmers\u2019 groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharma said past experience had shown that allowing free trade helps traders rather than farmers or consumers. \u201cThere were times when traders mopped up so much grain that the government had to import wheat at twice the price at which it had been exported months earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Said Dhar: \u201cGiven the nature of India\u2019s agricultural markets and the stranglehold of traders, it is unlikely that exports would have directly benefited the farmers. Unless farmers are more organised and develop better bargaining power, they would have difficulties in taking advantage of the favourable circumstances in the international market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main government constraint is that it is committed to providing some 800 million Indians highly subsidised food grains<\/a> under the National Food Security Act. Each beneficiary is entitled to five kilograms of grains per month at Rupees 3 (US$0.039) per kilogram for rice and Rupees 2 (US$0.013) per kilogram for wheat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharma said it was important for the government to maintain large buffer stocks, or public stockholding, against unpredictable events like monsoon failures or the recent heat waves which affected harvests. \u201cDuring the pandemic, India could distribute subsidised grain only because bumper harvests over the last five years had allowed the building of 50 million tonnes of surplus stock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we are actually staring at is a failure of policy<\/a> arising from lack of reliable data<\/a> systems with different ministries unable to coordinate with each other,\u201d said Kavitha Kuruganti, leader of the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, a national network that promotes farmers\u2019 rights and food security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFarmers and traders need a predictable policy environment. Also, there should be no mid-way changes in export-import policies between sowing season and marketing,\u201d Kuruganti said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, the government could offer a bonus over the minimum support price,\u201d she said. \u201cThat way, enough stocks can be ensured for poor consumers, while not penalising farmers who have been waiting for higher prices from exports but lost out thanks to ad-hoc decision-making and policy flip-flops.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mega policy flip-flop happened when the government was forced by striking farmers to repeal in November 2021 laws aimed at freeing up controls on the marketing of farm produce and doing away with the minimum support price for commodities that had become a budgetary burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net\u2019s Asia & Pacific desk.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Ranjit Devraj \u00a0 [NEW DELHI] India\u2019s ban on wheat exports has denied the country\u2019s farmers and traders an opportunity to earn money from the sale of wheat in the global market that is currently facing shortages of the prime staple as a result of Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, say analysts. India produced an estimated 107.9 million tonnes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,34],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-food-agriculture","8":"category-asia-pacific"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2812,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2811\/revisions\/2812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}