STC to import 25,000 tn pulses at Rs 70 crore

The State Trading Corporation (STC) plans to import 25,000 tonnes of pulses from Myanmar by August at a cost of Rs 70 crore.

STC would import 10,000 tonnes of urad (black mapte), 5,000 tonnes of green moong and 10,000 tonnes of lemon tur from Myanmar, which will be delivered at designated Indian ports in staggered lots, a company official said.

"Total value of the imports shall be about Rs 66.69 crore," he said. STC seeks delivery of pulses at Kolkata, Visakahapatnam and Mumbai ports.

The government had announced in April to import 15 lakh tonnes of pulses by December-end through state-owned agencies STC, PEC, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and MMTC. The decision was taken to improve the supply situation in the country, which would in turn help in containing the prices.

NAFED had floated a tender on June 1 to import 1.92 lakh tonnes of yellow peas from the global markets by August.

Meanwhile, the shipments of about 1.77 lakh tonnes of pulses of the total import contract of 6.4 lakh tonnes have arrived at various ports.