India Considers Allowing More Wheat Shipments

India has a great deal of wheat sitting at ports because of a sudden ban on exports that prevented dealers from loading cargoes. Reuters said trade and government sources say that the Indian government is considering allowing traders to ship out some of that wheat. The Indian government banned wheat exports over a week ago because of a heatwave that hurt the country’s wheat output. The sudden prohibition on shipping wheat left 1.8 million tons of grain at India’s ports with nowhere to go. Last Tuesday, the government gave permission to ship grains awaiting customs clearance before they can get shipped out of the ports. However, traders are putting pressure on the government to further relax its restriction on grain shipments.

A New Delhi-based grain dealer said, “Piecemeal relaxations are not going to help, and the government needs to resolve the issue in the next few days to avoid a chain of payment defaults.”

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