Government-to-government contract is being planned to import pulses to bridge the supply-demand gap and maintain stability of prices, said Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. The situation of pulses is now under control and their month-on-month prices have gone down, he told reporters in Bengaluru.
“There is a gap between demand and supply. This year our production is 170 lakh tonnes, last year it was 171 lakh tonnes, before that it was 173 lakh tonnes. On the demand side it is increasing 10 lakh tonnes per year. This year it will be 246 lakh tonnes,” he said.
The minister said the central government has worked out a strategy to mitigate the shortage of pulses and maintain the stability of the prices. He said there would be a gap of over 76 lakh tonnes. In this case, private importers may import only 60 lakh tonnes. For the rest, the government has planned to have government-to-government contract to fill the gap.
