“During the meeting, the Railways assured that they would provide enough rakes to meet the immediate demand for additional wheat transport. Port authorities have also been asked to expand dedicated terminals along with special containers for wheat separately in ports,” it added.
India is in final negotiations to start wheat exports to Egypt, while talks are underway with countries like China, Turkey, China and Iran to begin outbound shipments of the commodity, the Commerce Ministry said on Saturday.
It said India’s wheat exports rose to $1.74 billion in April-January 2021-2022, from $340.17 million in the same period last year.
In 2019-20, wheat exports were worth $61.84 million, rising to $549.67 million in 2020-2021.
It also said the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) recently hosted a meeting with key value chain stakeholders to promote exports to those countries with huge transport potential in the wake of global supply chain disruptions such as as a result of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“During the meeting, the Railways assured that they would provide enough rakes to meet the immediate demand for additional wheat transport. Port authorities have also been asked to expand dedicated terminals along with special containers for wheat separately in ports,” it added.
India’s wheat exports are mainly to neighboring countries with Bangladesh taking the largest share at over 54 percent in both volume and value in 2020-21. It has entered new wheat markets such as Yemen, Afghanistan, Qatar and Indonesia.
The top ten importing countries for Indian wheat in 2020-21 were Bangladesh, Nepal, United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Afghanistan, Qatar, Indonesia, Oman and Malaysia.
“In collaboration with state governments and other stakeholders such as exporters, farmer-producer organizations, transporters, etc., we are driving value chain infrastructure building to boost grain exports,” said M Angamuthu, President of APEDA.
India accounts for even less than 1 percent of world wheat exports. However, the share has increased from 0.14 percent in 2016 to 0.54 percent in 2020. India is the second largest wheat producer with a share of about 14.14 percent of the total world production in 2020.
India produces about 107.59 million tons of wheat annually, with much of that going to domestic consumption.
The major wheat producing states in India are Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Gujarat.
“The unit price of wheat plays an important role in international trade. While the unit export price of wheat has been increasing for all countries over the past five years, India’s unit export price is slightly higher than other countries. This is one of the factors negatively impacting wheat exports from India,” the report said.
To ensure seamless quality certification of products to be exported, APEDA has accredited 220 laboratories across India to provide testing services for a wide range of products and exporters.
This post India in final talks to start wheat exports to Egypt
was original published at “https://www.financialexpress.com/economy/india-is-in-final-talks-to-start-wheat-export-to-egypt/2465500/”
