Govt allows additional 5 mn tonne wheat export from FCI

Only private traders on the behalf of govt allowed to undertake the exports

To clear bulging grain stocks, a group of ministers (GoM), headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, today decided to allow export of an additional five million tonne (mt) of wheat from the Central pool. With this, total export permitted from FCI godowns now stand at 9.5 mt for the current financial year.

This time the export will be entirely done by private traders. In the past, wheat from the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) warehouses used to be exported with the help of state-run trading agencies such as State Trading Corporation of India, PEC and MMTC.

“The GoM has approved export of additional 5 million tonne wheat from the FCI stocks. Only private traders will be allowed to export this quantity,” Food Minister K V Thomas told reporters after the meeting. He added that private traders will initially be allowed to export wheat that is lying in the Punjab godowns and they have to bear the transport cost till ports for the export purpose.

Asked if state-run trading firms will be allowed to export more, Thomas said: “PSUs are already allowed to export 4.5 mt of wheat from FCI godowns. They will continue to export. A separate cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) note will be moved once the current allocated quantity is exhausted.”

Earlier in the day, the CCEA, which met to discuss the matter, could not come to a conclusion over the amount of additional export from the central pool, following which it was referred the matter to the GoM.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Food Minister K V Thomas, Railways Minister P K Bansal and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma were also present in the GoM meeting.

The floor price for private traders for the export was fixed at Rs 1,480 a quintal ex-Punjab.

Additional exports would ease storage pressure in Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Wheat stock has piled up in the government godowns due to record procurement following bumper crop in the past two years.

As on February 1, the government had over 65 mt of foodgrains in its stock, more than double the required quantity. Of this, almost half was wheat.

The government is aiming to procure a record 44 mt of wheat in the 2013-14 marketing year starting April. Wheat production touched an all-time high of 94.88 mt in 2012-13 crop marketing year. Production is estimated to be 92.30 mt in 2013-14 marketing year.