India and Pakistan to Export Wheat Following Bumper Harvest

The high yield of wheat this season in India and Pakistan has prompted them to allow the grain to be exported from this month onwards. Both countries riding high on the bumper harvest will be exporting wheat after many years of wheat shortage and lower harvests.

According to Pakistan’s food and agriculture ministry, bringing higher acreage of land under cultivation and perfect climatic conditions have helped the country to hope for a higher yield this year around. Pakistan consumes about 22mn tons of wheat per annum, farmers are expecting a bumper crop this year at about 24mn tons.

On the other hand, bumper harvests consecutively for the second year have assisted India to augment its stockpiles for about 30mn tons until early this month, increasing by two-thirds from a year ago. India procures its wheat from farmers for a minimum floor price of $225 per ton. The floor price is fixed for wheat and several other crops to the farmers to avoid incurring losses in case of lower yields or crop failures.

While India offloads 2mn ton surplus wheat, about half a million ton of Pakistani wheat would be heading to the Gulf region and Afghanistan. Pakistan is allowing wheat exports after the procurement of the same reached 8mn tons this year, the highest in seven years.

Indian traders are expecting a subsidy from the government to sell wheat and wheat products for a competitive price as international wheat prices is lower or about equal including cost and freight to the Southeast Asian region. Nevertheless, the wheat traders will export to their neighbouring countries including Bangladesh and Nepal since they are closer to the wheat procurement sites of the bordering Indian state, Bihar. Trade Secretary G.K. Pillai said exports would be allowed through select ports to keep a check on how much wheat was being exported.

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Blue-tongue Virus Scare Forces the UAE to Impose Restrictions

The World Organisation for Animal Health’s (OIE) report on the resurfacing of the blue-tongue disease among animals in some countries of Europe has alerted the UAE to take preventive measures to contain the virus from entering the country. On reports of the disease from its import destinations, Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, the minister of environment and water of the UAE has issued a directive to allow only livestock and related imports that fulfilled certain parameters set by the ministry.

A large portion of animal imports to the UAE come from the European countries including the UK, Portugal and Austria. There are several cases reported in the last one year from countries such as – Germany, Italy, Norway, Greece, Spain, Israel, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Algeria and Austria.

Blue-tongue virus is non-transmittable to humans and non-contagious among animals. The disease is characterised by changes to the mucous membranes of the tongue and nose, and certain types of midges are vectors of this animal disease. The ruminants including camels, cattle and sheep are chiefly susceptible to the virus.

According to new regulation, every animal arriving from blue-tongue affected countries will be individually inspected. Prior to the directive, only a random sample of about 10 per cent of each shipment had undergone inspection.

Besides, the animals should not be stung by the midges for a period not less than 28 days from the date of shipping. Regarding import of sperm, embryos and ova, the donating animals should be immunised against stings of midges for a period not less than 60 days before and during the process of collecting the sperm, ova and embryos.

However, OIE is surprised by the timing of the UAE’s move to clamp restrictions to animal imports particularly because these strains have been reported for more than a decade in Europe and the Mediterranean. Glaieul Mamaghani, deputy director of communications at the OIE asserted that the virus could not be transmitted to humans. The UAE ministry said that the effective date for the new regulation would be made known in a few days’ time.

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