Following the import restrictions, the yellow peas, has seen a sharp fallIndia should pursue consistent farm trade policies to help to avoid uncertainty among Canada’s farmers, big suppliers of pulses to New Delhi, a Canadian government minister said on Thursday.
Caption – L To R – Mr. Jitu Bheda, Chairman – Indian Pulses and Grain Association ,Mr. G Chandrashekhar, Senior Editor and Policy Commentator ,Mr. Pravin Dongre – Director ,Ms. Cindy Brown, President – Global Pulses Confederation ,Mr. David Marit, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Saskatchewan, Canada ,Mr. Ashish Bahuguna, Former Secretary – Agriculture and Former Chairperson – FSSAI,Mr. Sunil Kumar Singh, Addl. MD – NAFED
Protein-rich pulses are a staple of the Indian diet, and Canada is the world’s top exporter of peas and lentils.
India’s record imports of 6.6 million tonnes of pulses in the 2016/17 fiscal year prompted Canadian and Australian farmers to expand production but New Delhi introduced import curbs the following year, hurting overseas producers.
David Marit, agriculture minister of Canada’s Saskatchewan province, said India’s trade policy flip-flops fuelled uncertainty among Canada’s farmers.
Saskatchewan is Canada’s biggest pulses producer.
“We would like to see consistency and transparency in market access,” Marit told reporters on the sidelines of the Pulses Conclave, an industry conference.
In the 2016/17 fiscal year, Canada shipped a record 2.4 million tonnes of pulses but last year Canadian imports dropped to 121,861 tonnes.
Record imports led to a drop in domestic prices in 2016/17. India then raised import taxes on some pulses to as high as 50% and introduced import quotas for others such as yellow peas, green gram and chickpeas.
The import restrictions unnerved India’s traditional suppliers who grow pulses to meet the country’s annual requirements.
The Centre had imposed quantitative curbs on import of pulses in 2017 by imposing higher duties in the context of growing domestic production and to protect domestic growers from cheaper imports. Production of pulses in the country has seen a sharp increase.
Following the import restrictions, the yellow peas, has seen a sharp fall. From a peak of around Canadian $1.5 billion in 2015, pulses exports from Saskatchewan to India dropped to around Canadian $329 million in 2019.
Marit said the import restrictions in India had forced Saskatchewan to focus more on processing and that exporters were looking at other markets in countries such as China, Bangladesh, West Asia, Europe and the US, where the demand for plant-based protein was on the rise. The food industry in the West was looking at wheat alternatives and there are huge investments taking place in protein extraction facilities from pulses, he said.
Further, Marit said that the Government of Saskatchewan remains committed to India in the long term to help address food security challenges and pulses were part of the story. The Government of Saskatchewan is looking to open a trade office in India to boost the trade between the two countries.
Jitu Bheda, Chairman, IPGA, said the country’s trade policy on pulses should be flexible and that there was a need to strike a balance between farmer and consumer interests.
Sunil Kumar Singh, Additional Managing Director, NAFED, said the nodal agency was all geared up to procure pulses in States where prices are ruling below the minimum support price. The procurement of toor has begun in Karnataka, while registration of farmers has begun in Maharashtra.
Singh also added that NAFED was currently holding pulses stocks of around 34.5 lakh tonnes, mainly gram.
