Govt to phase out controls on farm exports

India said on Thursday it would phase out remaining export controls on agricultural commodities and expand futures and forward trading to cover all farm products.

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha announced in his Budget speech the government would promote agricultural export zones in different states to boost farm exports.

India already allows futures trading in about 35 commodities including sugar, several oils, oilseeds, fibres, pepper and castor seed. Futures trading in grains such as wheat and rices and precious metals such as gold and silver are still banned.

Sinha said the Agricultural Produce Marketing Acts would be amended to enable farmers to sell products directly to potential processors to help them get better prices.

India is encouraging grain exports to cut its bulging stocks which were about 58 million tonnes at the beginning of 2002.

It resumed wheat exports in October 2000 after a gap of nearly three years of which about 3.7 million tonnes have been shipped so far, traders said.

The country is expected to export 1.8 to 2.0 million tonnes of rice in 2002, up from about 1.2 million in the previous year.

Reuters

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