Indian Government asked to import 1 million tonnes of maize to check local price

• 22 Dec, 2018
• India

The government is “positively” considering an industry demand to allow import of 1 million tonnes of non-genetically modified maize at zero duty to overcome a shortage in domestic output and check rising prices at home.

India is traditionally a maize or corn exporter and has not imported the crop in the past two years.

“We have sensitised the government about the need to import 1 million tonnes of maize,” said B Soundararajan, chairman at Coimbatore-based Suguna Holdings. “The Union commerce minister has assured us that the government will consider the demand positively.”

Since the government has imposed a 60% import duty on maize, the industry wants to import it under the tariff rate quota (TRQ). The industry is hopeful that the government will allow the import in about two weeks.

India had imported 2,25,000 tonnes of maize under TRQ in 2016.

The spot price of kharif maize for delivery at Sangli in Maharashtra rose to Rs 1,841.55 a quintal at NCDEX on December 20, an 18.85% jump over Rs 1,549.4 on November 21. Prices had last touched this level two years ago.

Maize accounts for 55-65% of animal feed followed by soya meal at 25-30%.

India had turned a net importer of maize in 2015-16, importing 3,00,000 tonnes of non-GMO maize under the TRQ scheme.

“We want the government to allow import as a short-term solution as the present level of prices are unsustainable,” said Raghavan Sampathkumar, executive director at Compound Feed Manufacturers Association. “However, as the poultry sector has been growing at 6-8% per annum, we want the government to take longterm measures like increasing the productivity of maize.”

As per government data, production of kharif season maize is higher than the previous year, while there is no drop in the ongoing sowing of rabi maize. As per the first advance estimates of kharif production released by the government in September, production of maize is expected to be 21.47 million tonnes in 2018-19, as against the previous year’s production of 20.24 million tonnes. This is more than 4.40 million tonnes than the average production of maize during the past five years. The industry estimates that the production to be lower than previous year.

Source : https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/government-asked-to-import-1-million-tonnes-of-maize-to-check-local-price/articleshow/67188582.cms