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Informist, Thursday, Aug 29, 2024

 

By Pallavi Singhal

 

NEW DELHI – The government is considering offloading its reserve stock of about 500,000 tn of chickpeas to cool prices of the commodity, a senior official at the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution told Informist.

 

Prices of chana have been rising over the past two weeks, owing to strong festival demand and limited supply. Wholesale prices of chana dal were 8,402 rupees per 100 kg as of Wednesday, up 321 rupees per 100 kg from a month ago, data from the consumer affairs ministry showed. Compared to a year ago, prices have risen by 1,487 rupees.

 

The government has been scrambling to find a way to contain the price rise. On Friday, it held a meeting with agricultural analysts and trade representatives to better understand the situation and find a way out.

 

"The price rise has been very steep, which has the government worried. We are considering all options as prices may rise further due to ongoing festive demand. Using our 500,000 tn reserve is one of the options which should have an immediate effect on prices," the official said.

 

Such a move will help millers as well as traders, industry representatives say. "Even if the government offloads the small number of reserves they have, it will benefit the industry which is currently completely dry," said Deepak Gupta, a chana trader from Delhi. "Millers have very low stocks and are almost sitting idle. Any supply will be helpful," he said.

 

The government is also considering removing the import duty of 40% currently levied on kabuli chana to improve availability of the commodity across the country. The decision to remove the duty could be notified in the first week of September, Informist had reported on Aug 16.

 

Production of chana, a major rabi variety of pulses, in 2023-24 (Jul-Jun) has been pegged at 11.6 mln tn, lower than 12.3 mln tn the previous year, according to the third advance estimates. The drop is primarily due to erratic rainfall during last year's kharif season, which delayed sowing of the rabi crop this year. More heatwave days this summer also hit harvesting of chana across the country.

 

According to the commerce ministry, India's total imports of desi chana during Jan-Jun surged to 75,409 tn from 2,471.35 tn a year ago.  End

 

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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