As deficit rains affect sowing, Q1 pulses imports more than double
India’s imports of pulses such as tur (peas) and aurad (black matbi) more than doubled in the April-June quarter to pass the half-billion-dollar mark in value compared to the same period last year.
This is even with the sowing of some varieties like Tur and Orad appearing to lag behind last year’s levels in the current crop season in Khareef as major producing states like Karnataka and Maharashtra have seen deficient rains, so far, in the first part of the 2023 monsoon.
As per the latest official data, imports of pulses in rupee terms increased by 138 per cent at ₹4,117.63 over the same period last year to ₹1,725.93 crore. In dollar terms, imports rose to $500.94 million, marking an increase of 123.64 percent over last year’s $233.99 million.
In fact, imports tripled during the month of June alone in terms of value due to the late arrival of the monsoon and the late advance in the main producing countries and also due to the increase in prices in other sources of production such as Myanmar.
June imports of pulses increased by 218% to ₹1,793 crore over the same period last year at ₹564 crore. In dollar terms, imports rose by 201 percent to reach $218.15 million during June, compared to $72.25 million for the same period last year.
In terms of volume, Turkey’s imports during the period from April to June 2023-24 stabilized at 1.46 thousand tons compared to 76,806 tons in the same period last year, according to estimates by IGrain India. Likewise, urea imports rose by 1,007 thousand tons compared to the same period last year, which amounted to 76,355 tons.
Myanmar exports
“Urad exports are increasing from Myanmar because they have a good amount of stocks. Urad exports, which were at a slower pace than January 2023 are now increasing. Currently, Myanmar has stocks of about 50,000 tons of urad and 4-4.5 thousand tons of urad. Since prices of urad and urad were low in the past weeks, we can see an increase in exports in July as well. Rahul Chauhan of IGrain India Myanmar wants to sell maximum amount of tor and rad before the new season arrives.
Myanmar eur prices on a C&F basis rose from $900 a ton in early April to a high of $1030 a ton in mid-June and have eased to currently hovering around $940. Similarly, Burma lime prices which were around $1010 in early April have moved to a high of $1365 and are now hovering around $1250 a ton.
Khareef sowing of pulses till July 14 reached 66.92 lakh hectares compared to 77.13 lakh hectares for the same period last year. Al-Tur sowing decreased to 17.03 thousand hectares, compared to 27.59 thousand hectares during the same period last year. Areas under orad bean are slightly lower at 19.36 lakh hectares compared to the same period last year at 20.43 lakh hectares.
After the decline in the production of pulses due to irregular rainfall last year, the government extended the free import of tor and awrad until March 2024.