India’s Pulses Import Likely To Fall To 4.5 MT In FY25: IPGA Chairman

Aided by the forecast of a good monsoon season by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and higher domestic production, India’s reliance on the import of pulses is expected to fall in this financial year, according to India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) chairman Bimal Kothari. The country is likely to import 4 to 4.5 million tonne (MT) of pulses in this fiscal as compared with the import of 4.73 MT in the last financial year, the chairman stated.

Citing the frequent policy changes, the IPGA demanded the Centre to introduce a long-term policy for the pulses market, along with the demand to impose import duties on yellow peas.

Kothari, while speaking at the Bharat Dalhan Seminar 2024, stated that the expected fall in the imports of pulses in the current year is on the back of better production in the 2024-25 crop year. He also attributed the higher imports of pulses in the previous fiscal to the fall in the current fiscal, as per media reports.

“The country imported 16 lakh tonne of masoor dal last year. We need only ten lakh tonne imports of masoor dal.” The chairman stated that the yellow peas import is set to decline from the 2023-24 level.

Stating that the prices of pulses will not increase in the current fiscal, the chairman said that the prices of pulses have shown a downward trend in the last month in the wholesale market and are expected to do so in the coming months. Tur prices have registered a drop by Rs 20 per kg in the last one month in the wholesale markets, he stated.

The Centre provided the data on the import of pulses in the parliament last month. The data revealed that such imports rose by 90 per cent annually to take the figures at 47.38 lakh tonne during 2023-24. The import of pulses in 2020-21 was 24.66 lakh tonne, while the number went up in 2021-22 to 26.99 lakh tonne. However, the imports came down to 24.96 lakh tonne in 2022-23, according to the data by the Centre.

During the April-May period of FY25, the country has imported around 11.32 lakh tonne of pulses.