India is talking to Russia about buying wheat at a lower price because wheat prices worldwide are going up a lot. This is an unusual thing for India to do, but they want to get more wheat to help control the cost of food before important elections next year.
Procuring wheat from Russia could lower its cost, thus easing July’s increased living expenses. Methods being considered include purchasing from private firms or the Russian government directly. They’re being careful about making this decision.
India hasn’t bought wheat from Russia in a long time, but now they’re thinking about it. The last time they did this was in 2017 when some private businesses brought in a lot of wheat.
The government has a plan to buy wheat from Russia, and this is one of the ways they want to make things better for people. They’re also thinking about other things like fuel, grains, and beans. They want to help poor people by continuing projects in rural areas. People who know about this say the government is still deciding and it might take a few weeks. The government hasn’t replied to questions about this from the media.
Last month, a top government official said they didn’t have any plans to buy wheat from Russia.
India may increase wheat imports by 8-9 million tons from Russia to impact prices. After Ukraine’s issue last year, Russia became a significant source for India, especially cheaper oil.
Russia has said they can give a discount on the wheat they sell. They don’t have any rules against selling food to other countries. They’ve been selling sunflower oil to India, and India pays them in U.S. dollars.
Some experts think India could save money by getting a discount of $25 to $40 per ton from Russia. This would make the wheat cheaper when it arrives in India, even if the prices are high locally. This information comes from a person who works in trading in Mumbai.
In India, the price of wheat increased around 10% in just two months, reaching its peak in seven months. Government warehouses had lower wheat stocks on August 1st compared to the 10-year average.
Last year, India stopped selling wheat to other countries because they didn’t have enough. This year’s harvest is also expected to be at least 10% lower than what the government thought.