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Chitra Phadnis

BANGALORE, Jan. 8

THE pricing policy of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has kept export of wheat products from taking off, claim southern roller flour millers.

For reasons best known to itself, FCI has announced prices that make exports unviable. While wheat is available for exports as whole grains from FCI godowns at Rs 420 per quintal, the effective price of wheat that is to be converted into flour for exports is Rs 475 per quintal. ``For a country as Myanmar, it is now cheaper to import Indian wheat and mill it themselves, than to buy flour from us,''said Karnataka Roller Flour Mills Association President, Mr M K Dattaraj.

It is this inconsistency that has stopped millers from picking up any wheat at all for milling in the past two weeks since the notification was issued.

Millers also point out that this is not the only instance of differential pricing that they have had to fight.

FCI has had a continued policy of differential pricing of wheat for the North and the South, which has forced nearly 50 per cent of the mills to shut down, said Mr Dattaraj.

The differential pricing biased in favour of the northern millers, makes it unviable for the millers to enter even the local southern market. The significantly lower rates in the mandis of the North have been encouraging millers to dump flour at much lower prices in the southern states.

At one time, the southern millers industry convinced the Food and Civil Supplies Minister for a uniform price for FCI wheat. But when the northern millers accused him of being ``bought over'', the Minister withdrew his decision, he said.

In fact, the southern millers' worries seem to increase more from the fervent lobbying by the northern groups rather than anything else. The policies are more or less dictated by the north, millers indicated. In 2001-02, the south has had inadequate supplies of wheat, they said. Karnataka with an installed milling capacity of around one lakh tonnes per month milled only about 20,000 t.

The industry is now waiting for 2005, when wheat imports will be liberalised. The cheaper Australian wheat is expected to keep the mills going. Till then, it is a task for the millers just to be able to survive.

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