India will export 7 million tonnes in 2022-23 even after ban on wheat exports: UN

Due to the exceptions in the Wheat Export Ban from India, exports are estimated to be 7 million tonnes in 2022-23. This will be more than India’s average export in the last five years. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the food agency of the United Nations, said this. These exceptions include previously settled contractual commitments, government-to-government sales and exports for food security purposes.

The FAO released the Food Outlook on Thursday, saying that the 2022-23 session of the global wheat market is starting amidst a lot of uncertainty. “The ongoing battle in Ukraine, trade policy changes in several countries and higher international prices will shape the outlook for the wheat market,” it said.

The food agency said that international wheat prices have risen so much since 2008, due to reduced global availability due to yield shortages in some major exporting countries, and non-export of wheat, including Ukraine and India. Apart from this, due to supply concerns in 2022-23, there is also increasing pressure.

Global wheat production for the year 2022 is projected to decline by 0.8 per cent to 771 million tonnes from the record level of 2021, which will be the first decline in the last four years. Year-on-year declines in Australia, India, Morocco and Ukraine will outweigh projected gains in Canada, Iran and Russia.

It said that the ban imposed in India last month on the export of wheat will affect the supply abroad in 2022-23, while the country’s market share had increased significantly in 2021-22. Although earlier contractual commitments, government-to-government sales and food security objectives are exempt from this restriction, exports under these are estimated to be 7 million tonnes in 2022-23, higher than India’s average exports in the past five years.