Wheat export ban to stay

India, the world’s second-biggest producer of wheat, won’t end a ban on exports of the cereal to avoid food shortages after drought and floods damaged crops of rice and sugar cane.

“There is a need to conserve grains within the country,” Junior Food Minister K V Thomas said in New Delhi today. “We want to restrict exports.”

India, which last imported wheat in 2007 and this year became a net buyer of sugar, wants to ensure adequate food supplies after the driest monsoon rains in more than three decades caused a drought in almost half the country. Recent floods in the southern states may further cut cane and rice output, said Thomas.

The monsoon-sown rice output will fall 10 million tonnes from last year’s record as inadequate rainfall forced farmers to pare acreage by 6.1 million hectares. Duty-free purchases of refined sugar will be permitted until May or June to bolster supplies, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said last month.