India imports 3,000 tonnes of urad beans from Brazil, 20,000 tonnes more to go
India so far has imported 3,000 tonnes of black matpe or urad beans from Brazil and is likely to procure another 20,000 tonnes this year, said Union consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh. Singh in November had urged businessmen and officials in Brazil to grow pulses, especially tur (pigeon pea) and urad, to cater to Indian consumers amid falling domestic production, and as a way of diversifying the sourcing. “We need to ensure that food items are available in the country for our 1.4 billion consumers at an affordable price," Singh said on Thursday on the sidelines of the Global Pulse Confederation conference in New Delhi.
“There are two issues, affordability and availability, and both are interrelated. As we are predominantly a vegetarian country and as income levels are rising, the consumption of protein via pulses is also increasing. To cater to the rising demand, we cannot rely only on Myanmar.
We must diversify our risk and production of it could be thought of in Brazil and Argentina," he said. Singh said about 3,000 tonnes of urad had arrived in India from Brazil and another 20,000 tonnes are expected this year. “We will also take our discussions forward on tur imports with Brazil," he added.
Last year, India imported about 3.1 million tonnes of pulses. About half of those were lentils, majorly from Canada and Australia. India produces about 28 mt of pulses, making it the largest producer and consumer of pulses globally.
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