AMN / NEW DELHI
India has a comfortable food situation with an overall surplus availability of food grains. Secretary of Department of Food and Public Distribution Sudhanshu Pandey said, the country would have stocks of 80 lakh metric tonnes of wheat in April next year well above the minimum requirement of 75 lakh metric tonnes.
He said, the country would have surplus wheat production even though production was expected to 1,050 lakh metric tonnes, slightly lower than the initial estimate of one thousand 110 lakh metric tonnes in this financial year.
Underlining the surplus availability of rice in the country, the Secretary said, rice procurement last year was about 600 lakh metric tonnes and this year same figure is expected.
Talking about the wheat exports, Mr Pandey said, 40 lakh metric tonnes of wheat has been contracted for export and about 11 lakh metric tonnes was exported in last month. He informed that after Egypt, Turkey had also given approval for import of Indian wheat.
He clarified that the edible oil stocks were sufficient in the country and after a temporary ban by Indonesia, the palm oil imports were expected to start soon which would soften the edible oil prices in the country.