Centre eases restriction on wheat exports, allows consignments registered by May 13 to go through

The Central Government on Tuesday announced relaxations to its order restricting wheat exports. “It’s been decided that wherever wheat consignments have been handed over to customs for examination and registered into their systems on or prior to May 13, such consignments would be allowed for export,” the Commerce Ministry’s statement read. “The government also allowed a wheat consignment headed for Egypt, which was already under loading at the Kandla port. This followed a request by the Egyptian government to permit the wheat cargo being loaded at the Kandla port. M/s Mera International India Pvt. Ltd., the company engaged for export of the wheat to Egypt, had also given a representation for completion of loading of 61,500 MT of wheat of which 44,340 MT of wheat had already been loaded and only 17,160 MT was left to be loaded. The government decided to permit the full consignment of 61,500 MT and allowed it to sail from Kandla to Egypt,” the statement informed.

The Centre on Saturday had banned all shipments of wheat with immediate effect. Export of all wheat, including high-protein durum and normal soft bread varieties, were moved from “free” to the “prohibited” category. Only two kinds of shipments were be allowed: exports based on permission granted by the Centre to other countries “to meet their food security needs” and “on the request of their governments”; and contracted exports against which irrevocable letters of credit have already been issued “on or before the date of this notification, subject to submission of documentary evidence as prescribed,” according to a notification by the Department of Commerce. Following the ban, international prices spiked by almost 6 per cent a bushel (60 pounds or one million kernels or 27.21 kg) when global markets opened Monday. Locally, prices dropped sharply by 4-8 per cent in different states — Rs 200-250 a quintal in Rajasthan, Rs 100-150 a quintal in Punjab, and about Rs 100 a quintal in Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, the farmers’ unions in Punjab dubbed the Centre’s decision of banning wheat exports as an “anti-farmer” move, saying that the Union government is not letting them reap the gains due to higher prices of their crops in the overseas markets. They also slammed the Centre for not announcing a bonus of ₹500 per quintal of wheat, as demanded by them to compensate the drop in the yield on account of shrivelled grains due to intense heat wave in March.