After wheat, it is the quantities of flour from India, the world’s second largest producer of wheat after China, which will decrease. India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade is now planning to impose new restrictions on flour exports to protect its domestic market. Prior government approval will now be requested from exporters, intended to preserve quality and domestic prices. Wheat exports had already been greatly reduced in May to bolster national food reserves, following global shortages and soaring prices following the war in Ukraine.
“The disruptions in the global supply of wheat and wheat flour have prompted the arrival of many new players and led to price fluctuations and possible quality problems”, justify the authorities in a notice published on Wednesday, adding: ” It is therefore imperative to maintain the quality of the country’s wheat flour exports. Last May, hundreds of thousands of tons of wheat were stranded in a major Indian port.
109 million tonnes of wheat produced last year
Wheat is the number one cereal crop in India. Last year, the country of nearly 1.4 billion people enjoyed a fairly bumper harvest, producing 109 million tonnes of wheat, of which around seven million tonnes were exported.
This year, a severe heat wave in March and April led to a drop of around 5% in the Indian wheat harvest, raising fears of shortages on the domestic market. For their part, Russia and Ukraine together account for almost a quarter of the world’s wheat supply.