MoU signed between India, Myanmar to build a framework for cooperation aimed specifically in the pulses sector
India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the nodal body for India’s pulses trade and industry along with the India Myanmar Chamber of Commerce (IMCC) co-hosted a webinar on tur, urad and moong scenario in India and Myanmar under the aegis of ‘The IPGA Knowledge Series.’
IPGA recently signed an MoU with IMCC to work towards establishing a framework for cooperation aimed at contributing to sustainable socio-economic development through increased competitiveness and trade, improved business environment, and be used as a basis for the formulation and implementation of technical cooperation projects, specifically in the pulses sector. The webinar was the first such initiative under the tenets of the MoU.
Nidhi Khare, Additional Secretary – Dept of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India was Chief Guest at the webinar and Sourabh Kumar, Ambassador of India to Myanmar was the Special Speaker. B Krishna Murthy, Managing Director – Four P International, Chennai presented the Indian overview on urad and Punit Bachhawat, CFO and Head of Operations, Prakash Agro Industries, Ahmedabad spoke on tur and moong. The Myanmar overview on tur was presented by Vatsal Lilani, MD, Overtop Commodities, Myanmar while Desh Ratna, Treasurer and Executive Committee Member IMCC spoke on urad and moong.
The panellists covered key aspects like the impact of change in India’s import policies, the impact of COVID, the impact of Myanmar’s political unrest as well as production, demand-supply gap, available stock for export, expected exports to India, expected import quantities, etc. during the webinar.
Khare said, “When we saw that the availability of pulses is a challenge and that several other including African countries are ready to supply these pulses, we made a very bold decision of entering into a stable relationship of over five years so that the farmers in those countries also are assured to an extent that they will have a stable market in India, and it will also provide pulses at a moderate price too. The government also made it easy for the importers to bring in the agri-commodities without any restrictions when the prices rose during the pandemic.”
Khare while speaking about the pulses prices and steps taken by the government to ensure availability of pulses for consumers at reasonable prices, said, “The department has an important role to play when it comes to making the pulses available to the consumers at a reasonable and fair price. We have been also monitoring the price behaviour from time to time over the past several years and it is in moderation. Now, we have a very institutionalised mechanism to watch for the prices of consumers and also understand the behaviour of these prices. The rising trend in the prices has made us aware of the gap in the demand and supply of various pulses. The department has strengthened the daily price monitoring system, which has given us very accurate feedback on the retail price. When the prices of pulses continued to rise even after harvest, the government took several steps including the declaration of stocks.”
Saurabh Kumar applauding IPGA and IMCC’s efforts said, “Pulses are very important as far as the India – Myanmar relations are concerned. All the stakeholders have pointed out the criticality of pulses in our bilateral trade. Myanmar farmers are dependent upon exports of pulses and whenever there is a shortfall in India’s domestic production, India imports from Myanmar. I am given to understand that if India does not import, the production patterns in Myanmar shift or get diverted to other crops. We are looking at seeing what more can be done to have a stronger relationship as far as pulses are concerned and providing a certain amount of predictability.”
