India has taken up the issue of importing about 1 million tonne of pulses from Myanmar for partially meeting domestic demand due to shortfall in production.
Union minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday met his Myanmarese counterpart and discussed the issue of pulse imports. Sources told FE that India is looking at Myanmar for the import of pulses as it produces 2.7 million tonne while the domestic consumption only 0.5 million tonne.
?Wednesday?s discussion was about the possibility of import of an assured quantity of pulses ? urad, tur and moong from Myanmar at reasonable rates. Myanmar has a scheme of band of minimum export price of different quantities of pulses,? sources said.
The total production of pulses in India is in the range of 14 to 14.5 million tonne.
However, the domestic consumption is to the tune of 17-17.5 million tonne. The gap of 3 million tonne is filled through imports. About half the imports are of yellow peas primarily from Canada. The other imports are from Australia and some African countries as well as some European countries.
Sources said a medium term arrangement of import of pulses from Myanmar is likely to augment on an assured basis, availability of pulses in the Indian market.