India is looking at importing pulses from several countries to help boost its domestic supplies and control the inflation in the produce, media reports said.
The Indian government is reportedly planning to bring in shipments of pulses from Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and some African countries to add to the domestic inventory, reported Financial Express. The authorities have also removed import duties on various kinds of pulses such as tur, urad, masoor, yellow peas, and bengal gram till the end of the current 2024-25 fiscal year (FY25).
The report quoted an official and said, “The abolition of import duty on bengal gram announced recently was to give a signal to farmers in Australia and other countries for planting the pulses variety.”
Angrio de Queiroz Mauricio, Agriculture Attaché at the Brazilian embassy in New Delhi noted that both countries have been collaborating in the pulses crop for some time now. “However, our recent decision to plant and export urad to India look promising,” he said.
Notably, India’s import of pulses touched a record 4.65 million tonne (MT) in the 2023-24 fiscal year (FY24), increasing from 2.53 MT imports clocked in the preceding 2022-23 fiscal year (FY23).
The report cited sources and said that India has been holding discussions with Argentina regarding pulses imports.
India mostly imported masoor, tur, and urad till last year, wherein masoor came in from Australia, Myanmar, Mozambique, Canada, Malawi, Sudan, and Tanzania.
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The import duty on yellow peas was excused in December 2023. Currently, India is self-sufficient to cater to the local demand for pulses. However, citing sources the report said, that ‘there is a slight mismatch’ in terms of production and consumption levels of varieties of the crop such as tur, urad, and masoor. The crop’s annual production is anticipated to be around 26-27 MT.