No plan to lift exports ban on wheat and Non basmati rice

After annual review of the Foreign Trade Policy release meeting, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma announced “The ban on export of wheat and non-basmati rice will stay for now” no plan to lift the ban. Actually wheat export banned in early 2007 and non basmati rice in 2008 due to high inflation in India. Apart from this government would continue to restrict exports of certain food items such as pulses and oilseeds.

As on June 30 2010, government agencies had 163.93 lakh tonnes of rice and 112.87 lakh tonnes of wheat. In the same period last year, the rice was at 138.46 lakh tonnes and wheat was at 101.37 lakh tonnes. Still, our domestic requirement itself its too high and so no plan to lift the ban on exports of these food items.