The country’s wheat exports are likely is cross 10 MMT during 2022-23, due to increasing demand for the commodity in the world market, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Sunday. The exports have crossed 7 MMT in 2021-22 (worth over Rs 15,000 crore) as against 2.155 MMT (over Rs 4,000 crore) in 2020-21. It was only 200K tons (Rs 500 crore) in 2019-20.

The minister said wheat exports have helped several countries in meeting the requirements of food security. “We will continue to export wheat in a big way and meet the needs of the countries that are not getting their supplies from the conflict areas, and my own sense is that this time we will probably exceed our wheat exports (of) over 10 MMT comfortably,” he told reporters here.

Russia and Ukraine together account for almost a quarter of the global wheat supply. Their wheat crop will mature in August and September this year.

Farmers are focused on increasing production also, and regions like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are exporting in a big way from last year, he added. India is in final talks to start wheat export to Egypt, while discussions are going on with countries like China, Turkey, and Iran to begin the outbound shipments of the commodity.

Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Kumar Sarangi said that there is also an effort on the part of the departments of commerce and food and public distribution to facilitate exports from other ports. Maximum exports are routed through Kandla port. Discussions are on with railways for facilitation of wheat exports from different ports, such as Vizag, Kakinada, and Nhava Sheva, Sarangi added.

India exports wheat mainly to neighboring countries, with Bangladesh having the largest share of more than 54% in both volume and value terms in 2020-21. It has entered new wheat markets such as Yemen, Afghanistan, Qatar, and Indonesia. Wheat exports to Bangladesh have crossed 3.5 MMT in 2021-22. The top ten importing countries for Indian wheat in 2020-21 were Bangladesh, Nepal, United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Afghanistan, Qatar, Indonesia, Oman, and Malaysia.

India accounts for even less than 1% of world wheat export. However, its share has increased from 0.14% in 2016 to 0.54% in 2020. India is the second-largest producer of wheat. It had contributed around 14.14% of the world’s total production in 2020. India produces around 107.59 MMT of wheat annually, while a major chunk of it goes towards domestic consumption. Major wheat growing states in India are Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Gujarat.