India’s lentil import from Canada remains unaffected despite diplomatic tussle

Pulses such as chickpeas, pigeon peas and green gram are staple diets for a large number of Indian households and are a rich source of protein. However, the country is not able to increase the domestic production of pulses despite several government programmes. Any shortage of pulses leads to a firming of their prices and the prices of chickpeas, pigeon peasand green gram, have gone up in recent months and the price rise of pulses has a direct impact on food inflation.

New Delhi:India’s import of pulses from Canada remains unaffected and in fact has gone up during the first 10 months of the current year despite the diplomatic relations between the countries hitting a historic low in recent weeks, according to the data. According to the latest trade data cited by a top official, the country imported 1.09 million tonnes of pulses between January and October this year, and slightly less than half of it came from one of India’s biggest lentil suppliers Canada despite bitter relations and tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats by both the countries.

According to Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary of the Department of Consumer Affairs, the department has not received complaints of any difficulties faced by any Indian importer in importing pulses from Canada. As per the industry insiders, Indian importers held back some of the orders in September this year as the diplomatic relations between the countries hit an all-time low after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s sensational allegation linking Indian agents with the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver in June this year.

India rebutted the sensational allegations of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of Nijjar and in a tit-for-tat response asked a large number of Canadian diplomats to leave the country. As the diplomatic war raged between the two countries, Indian buyers looked for other sources such as Australia, and scaled down their purchases from Canada, India’s biggest lentil supplier.

India consumes around 2.4 million tonnes of pulses every year, but the domestic production is not adequate and it is short by around eight lakh tonnes. The country imported over 4.85 lakh tonnes of pulses from Canada during the last financial year, which is more than half of the commodity imported by India in the last fiscal.

Pulses such as chickpeas, pigeon peas and green gram are staple diets for a large number of Indian households and are a rich source of protein. However, the country is not able to increase the domestic production of pulses despite several government programmes. Any shortage of pulses leads to a firming of their prices and the prices of chickpeas, pigeon peas and green gram, have gone up in recent months and the price rise of pulses has a direct impact on food inflation.

Consumers have been paying high prices for pulses as the inflation for pulses was at 13% last month, which is the highest in all food categories. Under the law, the RBI is mandated to keep the retail prices in the country within the target band set by the government under Section 45ZA of the RBI Act.

According to Rohit Kumar Singh, the price of pulses is expected to remain stable as the government has sufficient stock of the commodity and imports are not affected despite diplomatic tussles with the largest supplier Canada. According to officials, India is not planning to impose any curbs on trade and investment coming from Canada despite the diplomatic spat between the countries.