Record import of lentils despite excellent domestic production

03-Jul-2024 08:52 PM

New Delhi. Under its third advance estimate, the Union Agriculture Ministry has expressed the possibility of lentil production in India increasing to a high level of 17.54 lakh tonnes during the 2023-24 season,

which is 12.81 percent more than the production of the 2022-23 season, but the industry-trade sector does not agree with this figure. It says that the actual production of lentils has not exceeded 12-13 lakh tonnes. The harvesting of the crop has already been completed.

According to the available data, during the entire period (April-March) of the financial year 2023-24, the import of lentils in India jumped sharply to an all-time high of 16.76 lakh tonnes,

which is much higher than the record import of 12.60 lakh tonnes in 2015-16. In the first two months of the current financial year i.e. during April-May 2024, 1.01 lakh tonnes of lentils were imported in the country.

Although no official data has been revealed about how much lentils were purchased from the farmers at the minimum support price this time,

but the industry-trade sector believes that 1.50-2.00 lakh tonnes have been purchased so far. It is worth mentioning that government agencies like NAFED and PPF have a stock of about 6 lakh tonnes of red lentils, which was also purchased in the 2023 and 2022 seasons.