India's trade minister says his country's wheat production is enough for domestic consumption only.
Prior to the war in Ukraine and the wave of qiz, this year's forecast was for an increase in wheat production in India (109 million tons in 2021) and exports (7 million tons).
New Delhi's decision to ban wheat exports amid sharp price hikes due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused resentment abroad and caused a further increase in the price of this staple.
Within India, anger is rife among farmers and traders after they were denied a chance to make gains, particularly as prices in the domestic market collapsed, unlike world prices.
India is the second largest exporter of wheat in the world, but the Government, the country's main wheat buyer, defended its decision to ban exports, noting that food security for its citizens must be guaranteed.
This measure, coupled with declining global supply from Russia and Ukraine, among the world's top five wheat exporters, has increased prices to unprecedented levels in the raw material markets in Chicago and Europe.
In contrast, prices went in the opposite downward trend in Kana, India's Punjab state, India's wheat store and Asia's largest grain market.
The market consists of about a dozen giant storage hangars, each the size of a football field. Every year, thousands of farmers in the productive area go to sell their crops.After the price of wheat was 2,300 rupees (about 28 euros) for 100 kg before the export ban, it fell to 2015, equivalent to the government's minimum price for the purchase of grain for the government's large-scale distribution system.
Hundreds of millions of indian small farmers are in very fragile conditions, as their activity remains subject to weather fluctuations. Many Punjab farmers were mainly facing the problem of declining production due to the increasingly frequent wave of vomiting.
