Canada welcomes decision to extend duty-free import period of yellow peas in India
17-Sep-2024 02:03 PM
Saskatoon. The decision taken by the Government of India to extend the time limit for duty-free import of yellow peas from 31 October to 31 December 2024 has been strongly welcomed by the producers and exporters of Canada.
In fact, Canada is the major country supplying yellow peas to India. The President of Pulse Canada has said that this is very important news for the indigenous industry. This will provide relief to the producers of Canada.
It is noteworthy that the Government of India had first allowed duty-free import of yellow peas in December 2023 till 31 March 2024 and then its period started being extended.
In the months from January to July 2024, 7.30 lakh tonnes of yellow peas were exported from Canada to India.
However, the Canadian producers and exporters are a little surprised at the timing of the decision to extend the duty-free import period of yellow peas in India because soon the sowing of peas is likely to begin in the country and farmers may get discouraged if the huge imports from abroad continue.
It has often been seen that the Government of India makes such announcements at the last moment or sometimes only after the deadline has passed, but this time a decision to this effect was taken a month and a half ago.
Pulse Canada has been launching in India for years so that it can get information about the policy decision much before the scheduled time.
Earlier, India used to import peas along with lentils from Canada in large quantities, but later the import of lentils continued but the import of peas stopped.
It is understood that the Government of India has extended the time period with the aim of controlling the prices of pulses.
According to an analyst, there is a huge stock of 10-11 lakh tonnes of yellow peas in India and imports from abroad are also continuing.
Imports of between 6 to 8 lakh tonnes of yellow peas have been contracted for shipment from August to October 2024, while separate deals are now expected for November-December shipments.