ET NowIn an chat with ET Now Dr. Pramod K. Joshi, the director for IFPRI, spoke about the expectations of the pulse prices in the upcoming season.
ET Now: With a good monsoon and impressive produce this year, do you see a drop in prices of pulses?
PK Joshi: This year the production has been very good, specially the arhar crop. The retail price for Arhar was around Rs 200/kg, this year I am sure that production is expected to exceed 5 million tons and I am sure that the prices are going to come down. It may hover Rs 120 or Rs 130/ kg and the government has also tied up with Myanmar and Mozambique to supply arhar to India. This is a good year for pulses, but our future policies should not be driven by this year’s production because pulses are always responding to rainfall so if there is a drought or low rainfall the pulses production will come down so our future policy should have a good support price for the farmers procurement.
ET Now: Sugarcane production has seen a fall this season, how would that impact sugar output and prices?
PK Joshi: The sugarcane production will increase but there is a problem in the way prices are fixed for the mill. We should have an effective policy of prices whenever we have increase in production otherwise it will create more problems for the sugar industry.
ET Now: Do we expect low vegetable inflation as well as pulses inflation over the course of the next three to four months?
PK Joshi: Sure. You know vegetable prices, there is a significant correlation between season and the prices of vegetables, during summer season the prices are higher and now the prices will cool down, now onwards till I think January-February there are lots of vegetables coming in the market so the prices will cool down and overall inflation will come down. I think this year the food inflation will come down dramatically, it will be around 4-5% for all the food commodities.
ET Now: With a good monsoon and impressive produce this year, do you see a drop in prices of pulses?
PK Joshi: This year the production has been very good, specially the arhar crop. The retail price for Arhar was around Rs 200/kg, this year I am sure that production is expected to exceed 5 million tons and I am sure that the prices are going to come down. It may hover Rs 120 or Rs 130/ kg and the government has also tied up with Myanmar and Mozambique to supply arhar to India. This is a good year for pulses, but our future policies should not be driven by this year’s production because pulses are always responding to rainfall so if there is a drought or low rainfall the pulses production will come down so our future policy should have a good support price for the farmers procurement.
ET Now: Sugarcane production has seen a fall this season, how would that impact sugar output and prices?
PK Joshi: The sugarcane production will increase but there is a problem in the way prices are fixed for the mill. We should have an effective policy of prices whenever we have increase in production otherwise it will create more problems for the sugar industry.
ET Now: Do we expect low vegetable inflation as well as pulses inflation over the course of the next three to four months?
PK Joshi: Sure. You know vegetable prices, there is a significant correlation between season and the prices of vegetables, during summer season the prices are higher and now the prices will cool down, now onwards till I think January-February there are lots of vegetables coming in the market so the prices will cool down and overall inflation will come down. I think this year the food inflation will come down dramatically, it will be around 4-5% for all the food commodities.
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