The government has no immediate plans to relax the ban on the export of non-basmati rice or withdraw the export duty on basmati rice exports.

Speaking at the Economic Editors’ Conference here, Union Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said: “For the next 4-5 months, I do not want to create a situation where wheat and rice prices go up.”

He also ruled out the imposition of an import duty on palm oil. “If oilseed prices go down below the minimum support price (MSP), we will definitely act. However, at the moment market prices are ruling above the MSP,” Pawar said. The government has also made a downward revision in sugar production estimates for 2008-09 (October-September) by 6.8 per cent to 20.5 million tonnes. “The delayed rains have led to lower sucrose content in sugarcane. However, sugar output cannot go below 20.5 million tonnes,” Pawar added.

The country has a carryover of 11 million tonnes of sugar from the previous season, which takes the total availability to 31.5 million tonnes for the year. “After accounting for domestic consumption of 22 million tonnes and estimated export of 2 million tonnes, the country would still have a surplus of 7.5 million tonnes during the year,” he said.

On agricultural growth, the minister said: “Average annual growth during the Tenth Five-Year Plan is estimated at 2.5 per cent. However, the growth rate during 2006-07 and 2007-08 has been more than 4 per cent. I believe we will be able to maintain this rate in 2008-09 as well.”

Pawar added that even though the kharif output estimate is lower than last year owing to delayed monsoon in states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the rabi crop will more than compensate the loss.

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