Little Change in India's Pulse Policy Seen

WASHINGTON - Feb 21/13 - SNS -- Pulse production in India stands a good chance of remaining around 17 million metric tons (MT) through the coming 2013-14 kharif and rabi season production cycles, suggesting that for the fourth year in a row pulse availability in India will more closely match the country's needs.

However, this is still means imports need to remain around 4 million MT, maintaining India's status as the most important buyer of pulses in the world.

One implication of this need to maintain imports at a high level is that current policies are likely to remain in place for at least another year, believes the U.S. agricultural attache for the country. An extension would see the import duty on pulses remain at zero and the ban on exports of all pulses except kabuli chickpea remain in place until March 31, 2014.

Production in 2013-14 is currently expected to come in around 17 million MT, down from this season's estimated 17.58 million MT harvest, and well below the record 18.24 million MT produced in 2010-11. During the most recent five-year period, pulse production in India has averaged 16.43 million MT, up from just 14.31 million between 2005-06 and 2009-10 marketing years.

Despite the increase in average annual output, imports have also increased from an average 3.45 million MT between 2005 and 2009 to 4.13 million MT during the most recent five-year period. Instead of resulting in a surplus of pulses on the India market, this has allowed the country to change from dealing with a chronic deficit in the quantity of pulses available to closely matching the country's average per capita needs.