India changes its ban on wheat exports
The Indian government has made some changes to its earlier ban on wheat exports, which was previously announced by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade DGFT Department of Commerce.
In a new notification, the Ministry of Commerce said it has been decided that wherever wheat consignments have been handed over to Customs for examination and have been registered into their systems prior to 13.5. Such consignments would be allowed to be exported in 2022. The government also allowed a wheat consignment headed for Egypt, which was already under loading at the Kandla port. The Egyptian government asked to allow wheat cargo to be loaded at the Kandla port.
According to official notification, India had banned wheat exports with immediate effect as part of measures to control rising domestic prices.
It added that export shipments for which irrevocable letters of credit LoC have been issued on or before the date of the notification will be allowed.
According to it, wheat exports will be allowed on the basis of permission granted by the Government of India to other countries to meet their food security needs, and will be allowed on the request of their governments.
It helps other countries with food deficit and ensure India's reliability as a supplier, and it helps ensure India's food security and check inflation. The order was intended to give a clear direction to the wheat market to prevent hoarding of wheat supplies, the government said.
The ban on exports comes amid a disruption to global wheat supply due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, which are major exporters of the foodgrain.
According to the DGFT, around 50 per cent of the total wheat exports were exported to Bangladesh in the last fiscal.
The country exported around 963,000 tons of wheat this year against 130,000 tons in the same period last year.
In the summer-June 2021-22 crop year, wheat production is expected to be 111.32 million tons, according to the second advance estimate of the agriculture ministry.