By Sameer Mohindru
- Narinder Nanu/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
- Pakistan has been moving to fill part of the gap left by India in export markets due to the latter’s ban on exports of wheat and rice.
India may be at loggerheads with Pakistan over a wide range of issues but one of its policies is unwittingly working in favor of its regional rival: New Delhi's export ban on wheat and ordinary rice.
India’s government-held stocks of food grains hit an all time high of over 65 million metric tons this month, more than double its strategic reserve requirements. Nevertheless, the export ban, first introduced a few years ago to tame inflation, is still in place.
Pakistan, in contrast, permitted exports of surplus wheat this year. Despite having witnessed its worst-ever floods in 2010, instead of pressing the panic button, rice shipments have also continued unhindered.
Pakistan has already exported a record 2 million tons of wheat this year and several hundred thousand tons more are in the pipeline, Muhammed Najib Balagamwalla, chairman of the Seatrade Group, a Karachi-based commodities trading company told India Real Time on Thursday. He said exports may reach nearly 3 million tons by early August. After that, he said it's likely to taper off, since by then excess stocks would have been mostly shipped out.
“India’s wheat and rice if permitted to be exported, is more competitive than that of Pakistan’s in the global market,” a Mumbai-based executive with a glob [...]
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