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India wheat imports hit 10-year high as rains damage crop
June 23, 2015, 2:30 pm

wheat output and overall crop quality is seen taking a hit this year following heavy, untimely rain in northern and central grain-growing parts of India just before the harvest [Xinhua]

Wheat output and overall crop quality is seen taking a hit this year following heavy, untimely rain in northern and central grain-growing parts of India just before the harvest [Xinhua]

India has reportedly purchased some 500,000 tonnes of Australian wheat in recent deals, the biggest such imports by Asia’s third-largest economy in a decade, over fears that untimely rains damaged the crop in the subcontinent.

Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb is in India with top CEOs from the country.

Indian flour mills have bought 500000 tonnes of Australian prime wheat for the June-July shipment at $255 to $275 a tonne, including cost and freight, Reuters reported.

The world’s second-largest wheat consumer and producer could buy a further tranche of 500,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia and France.

Although, rains and hailstorms wilted the Indian wheat crop, India has large wheat stockpiles accumulated, with the state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) totalled 19.52 million tonnes on 1 March.

India’s wheat imports since 2010, when it imported around 200,000 tonnes of wheat, have been low owing to bumper domestic production.

 

TBP and Agencies