The Hindu Business Line : NECC urges Centre to extend ban on maize exports

Pune, July 30 NECC has appealed to the Central Government to extend the ban of maize further to a period of one year, or at least six months, so as to make it unviable for the exporters to hold the stock until the exports resume.

It has also appealed to the Government to impose a ceiling on the stock holding by traders so as to avoid hoarding, and that even after the ban is lifted, exports be canalised through a designated Government Agency and exports by private traders be banned. It has further appealed for an interest subvention of eight per cent on bank loans availed by poultry farmers, for a period of at least two years, to enable the farmers to tide over the crisis.

An official release of NECC said the Government had banned the export of maize till October 15, to ensure adequate availability of this essential ingredient of poultry feed and to rein in the spiralling price of the commodity, to provide relief to the poultry farmers.

Prices Soar

Following this ban on exports, maize price had comedown by Rs 100 in certain markets for a couple of days – and in Andhra Pradesh for about a week. But now the price of maize is over Rs 1,000 in North India, and in rest of country the price is around Rs 1,300 an all time record high price, as exporters have resumed the purchase of the coarse grain in a big way – and market trends indicate that it may further increase to Rs 1,400 in the next few days.

At the same time, the price of soyameal – another crucial ingredient of poultry feed – has also gone up from Rs 7,000-8,000 a tonne last year to Rs 24,500.

It noted that countries such as Argentina and Brazil who are big exporters of maize have banned exports to protect their poultry industries, so that poultry prices do not go up. It added that the industry is worried that as the exporters continue to accumulate huge stocks, it might lead to non-availability of maize to the poultry farmers, particularly in South India and Maharashtra, and there could be large scale mortality of birds due to starvation.

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