Focused on the Indian Govt’s plans for the forthcoming Lentils crop as well as an update on Canadian and Australian Lentils
India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for India’s pulses trade and industry, hosted THE IPGA KNOWLEDGE SERIES WEBINAR ON LENTILS with domain experts like Dr S K Malhotra, Agriculture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India; Sunil Kumar Singh, Additional MD, NAFED; Rakesh Khemka, Managing Director, Uma Exports; Peter Wilson, Managing Director, Wilson International Trade, Australia and Rav Kapoor, CEO & Director, ETG Commodities Inc., Canada.
The webinar, moderated by Anurag Tulshan, IPGA East Zone Convenor and Managing Director Esarco Exim was attended by close to 800 participants from across 30 countries. The webinar had a focused discussion on key aspects like production of forthcoming Lentils crop, trade’s perspective of stock availability, expected imports as well as price outlook.
Dr. S K Malhotra, Agriculture Commissioner informed, “Domestic sowing target set at 1.40 million Ha and production target set at 1.60 million tons”.
Sunil Kumar Singh said, “We have sufficient funds, infrastructure and will to buy every grain available at the farmgate if the prices were to drop below the Rs. 51,000 per metric ton MSP.However, with an annual demand of around 2 million tons, the deficit of 4 lakh tons will have to be met by imports. If the domestic production does reach 1.60 million tons, then domestic prices expected to remain around the MSP of Rs. 51,000 per metric ton with a minor fluctuation.”
Neither Australian nor Canadian farmers are expected to get into the market aggressively till after April 2021 when the situation of India’s Lentil crop is clear.
Peter Wilson, speaking about the Australian Lentils scenario said, “This year, Australia has a total availability of 861,000 tons of lentils and expects to export around 750,000 tons. Apart from India, we expect Turkey to be a big importer. As of now, even before the harvest, about 25% to 30% of the crop has already been traded and prices have been in the early USD 600 per metric ton range.”
Anurag Tulshan, IPGA East Zone Convenor and moderator of the Lentils webinar said, “With Canada having completed their Lentils harvest, Australia about to start their harvest and India due to start sowing, this was the best time to host this webinar as the Indian trade needed a holistic view of the overall situation.”
