At $1.94 billion, India’s pulses imports decline by 12.75% in FY23

After registering growth for four consecutive years, India’s pulses imports in terms of the rupee declined by around 5 per cent during the 2022-23 fiscal.

As per the Commerce Ministry’s quick estimates of major commodities, the value of pulses imported stood at ₹15,780.73 crore during FY23 compared with ₹16,627.58 crore in FY22. In terms of dollar, pulses imports were down by 12.79 per cent at $1.94 billion against $2.22 billion.

The decline in import value was likely on account of a dip in purchases of some pulses varieties such as as black matpe (urad), red kidney beans (rajma) and desi chickpea (gram). However, imports of tur and lentils increased. The Government is yet to release the quantitative import data for pulses.

Based on the port data, Rahul Chauhan of IGrain India estimated tur imports during 2022-23 at some 8.75 lakh tonnes against 8.40 lakh tonnes (lt) a year ago. Similarly, imports of lentils are higher at over 7.73 lt (6.67 lt). However, urad imports are lower at 5.12 lt (6.11 lt), desi chickpea at 59,255 tonnes (1.40 lt), cow pea at 32,989 tonnes (71,890 tonnes) and rajma at 90,704 tonnes (1.37 lt).

Import disparity

“Imports of tur and urad could have slowed down due to factors such as import disparity in the past two months and also due to the government interventions, while fundamentals are different due to lower production and availability,” Chauhan said.

Following a firm trend in prices in recent weeks of tur and urad, the Government is keeping a close watch on the stocks of these pulses making it mandatory for the trade to declare stocks. Due to a shortfall in domestic supplies of these two varieties following an erratic weather pattern affecting the output, imports of tur and urad have been kept open till March 2024.

India’s overall pulses production has increased from 22 million tonnes (mt) in 2018-19 to 27.81 mt largely on an increase in the production of gram from 9.9 mt to 13.6 mt during the period. Production of tur increased from 3.3 mt to 3.6 mt during this period, while urad declined from 3 mt to 2.68 mt.

Imports of pulses — which fell from a high of ₹28,520 crore in 2016-17 to ₹8,035 crore in 2018-19 — have increased steadily over the past four years to touch ₹16,628 crore in 2021-22.

India, the largest producer and consumer of pulses, is a net importer as domestic output of some varieties such as tur and urad is insufficient to meet the growing demand. Pulses, rich in fibre, have high protein content and have been a traditional source of vegetable protein for majority of the population in the country.

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