The government is planning to import more than 4.5 lakh tonnes of wheat flour, valued at around Rs 8,000 crore, even as domestic wheat production has gone up by 8 per cent this year. The agriculture ministry will put forth the proposal at the next meeting of the designated group of ministers (GoM) headed by Pranab Mukherjee. The proposal also envisages removing the existing 37 per cent duty on import of wheat flour. Sources said that the proposal has already been approved by consumer affairs, food and public distribution secretary Nandkumar.

The Government plans to control rising domestic prices of primary commodities. Therefore, it wants to import wheat flour even though the prices of wheat are currently cheaper in domestic market (below Rs 1,100 per quintal) by over 30 per cent compared to international prices (Rs 1,600 per quintal). Earlier, an attempt to import 7.9 lakh tonnes of wheat was stalled in the wake of a PIL filed by NGO Navdanya in the Supreme Court against the proposed wheat imports.

Import of wheat flour will have an adverse impact on farmers. If wheat flour is imported, local wheat flour prices will fall, millers in turn will buy less wheat from farmers; so the price of wheat will be further depressed in the domestic market, which in turn will affect farmer’s earnings.

Food and trade policy analyst Devinder Sharma asked, “What is the need to import wheat flour when there is no shortage? The Government is not concerned about the farmer but only about Cargill and ADM (US agricultural commodities exporters).” Other flour mill industry sources are of the same opinion, “This is just a move to enable the import of US wheat through the backdoor.” US wheat with 12,000 weeds per 200 kg compared to Indian specifications of only 100 weeds per 200 kg fails to meet Indian quality standards. There has been constant lobbying by the US farm lobby and diplomatic pressure on the Government to bend rules to give market access to US wheat exporters.

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