Dal millers were told to import pulses by October 31 to make sure the availability and keep a check on the domestic prices. Millers in the country have asked the government to extend the deadline from 31st October to year end for the import of pulses.
Suresh Aggrawal, the President of Indore-based All India Dal Millers Association said that although the crop in Burma was good, the crop in African nations had been delayed and was likely to come into the market by the end of the year. Therefore, it would not be possible for millers to import the pulses before the year-end.
According to him, around 2.5 lakh tonne of pulses can be imported by millers by October 31. However, it will be difficult to import the quota of 4 lakh tonne of that in the given deadline time period. We have requested the government to extend the deadline to importn or re-allocate additional quota of 1,00,000 tonne.
He added that licenses for pea import had not been given, although the government had issued notification. Various pulses mill traders had applied for licensing of pea import. However, licenses had been issued plus merchant's fees have not been refunded till yet. So, traders who have applied for the licence of pea import should be issued the quota for pea import as soon as possible. The period of pulses, fixed by the government as 31st October should be extended to year's end. Due to rains in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the prices of pulses such as urad, chana, moong and masoor have gone up by 5-10% in the past month and it will put impact the production, as per market reports.
The association pointed out that in order to remunerate the damage to urad, quota of import of pulses should be increased by one lakh tonne so that mills can process urad till March 2020.
Aggrawal added that 1,200 applications received by the government, import licences had been granted to around 1,118 millers for the import of tur. The imports have been given permission for two-month period from September to October 30.
These pulses are expected to be imported from Burma, Mozambique, South Africa, Malawi and Kenya, among other nations. The millers have begun placing import orders for tur. Aggrawal said that the production for kharif pulses may drop by 15 % this season because there was a dry spell during growing period of the crop. Dal mills said a likely drop in pulses production in the kharif season would squeeze supplies for mills.
