Day: June 13, 2017

The Pune district office of Food Corp of India has ordered a probe into shortage of 111 tonne of wheat stocks meant for supply through public distribution system. We are likely to have received 111 tonne less wheat from 3,500 tonne of wheat bought from the Patti region in Punjab, and the fault is probably from dispatching end. The Food Corp official in Pune has advised food storage depot in-charge of Ahmednagar and storage superintendent Maharashtra State Warehousing Corp, Ahmednagar, to freeze the stocks and update all records pertaining for investigation. A committee of three officers has been formed for conducting the physical verification of stocks. The wheat rake (1rake=60,000-70,000bags) was placed for unloading in Ahmednagar depot of the FCI in Maharashtra.

The government is likely to give importers some more time to comply with mandatory methyl bromide fumigation of all grain cargo at the port of origin. The current exemption from the compliance will expire on Jun 30. Indian plant quarantine norms stipulate methyl bromide fumigation of all cargoes at the port of loading to prevent foreign insects and pests from reaching Indian shores. In 2005, the government had relaxed this norm, allowing importers to either use alternative fumigants or fumigate imported grain shipments with methyl bromide once they enter Indian waters. The move had helped India import wheat and pulses from the US, Canada, Australia and European countries, where use of methyl bromide is banned due to environmental and health concerns. The government now wants to re-instate the mandatory use of methyl bromide at the port of origin, as the chemical is the best bet so far against eggs and pupae of insects, which other fumigants fail to tackle. There are concerns that India move to tighten fumigations norms would slow the import of pulses and wheat from Australia, Canada, France, Ukraine, Russia and a host of other countries that have banned the use of methyl bromide. The government has already issued a draft notification allowing the use of phosphine on grain shipments from Canada.