Agriculture Current Affair 19 April 2022

100-150 lakh tonne wheat exports likely this year, India to export wheat to Egypt: Piyush Goyal

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said that India may export 100-150 lakh tonne wheat this year as against 70-73 lakh tonne in the just ended fiscal. India’s overall wheat exports were two lakh tonne till two years ago.

His statement comes after Egypt agreed to import wheat from India and approved it as a wheat supplier.

“They (Egyptian authorities) visited our farms after end of March…The issue was stuck for 10 years. Now india will export wheat to Egypt,” Goyal told reporters.

Draft tea bill proposes to remove licenses, archaic provisions

The draft tea bill intends to remove archaic or redundant provisions, do away with licences, promote ease of doing business and boost exports from he sector, an official said. The commerce ministry has proposed to repeal the 68-year old Tea Act, 1953 and and introduce a new legislation Tea (Promotion and Development) Bill, 2022.

“The purpose of the new bill is to remove the archaic/redundant provisions which have lost their relevance and make it industry friendly, doing away with licences and act as a facilitator,” the official said.

It would also suit the need of the industry and the economic scenario currently prevalent in the country.

Sugar exports may jump to 90 lakh tonnes in 2021-22: ISMA

Sugar exports are estimated to increase to over 90 lakh tonnes in the current marketing year ending September, from 71-72 lakh tonnes in the previous year, on better demand for the Indian sweetener from Bangladesh and Indonesia, according to industry body ISMA. The sugar marketing year runs from October to September.

“As per market reports and port information, around 80 lakh tonnes of sugar export have been contracted so far. Out of that, about 57.17 lakh tonnes of sugar have been physically exported out of the country during October 2021-March 2022 period, as compared to about 31.85 lakh tonnes exported in the last sugar year during the same period,” Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said in a statement.

About 7-8 lakh tonnes of sugar is in pipeline for export in April 2022.