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The government may consider industry’s demands to export excess wheat products like flour and semolina, but only if conditions of food security are met, said Pralhad Joshi, the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, on Wednesday.

Joshi spoke at the 85th annual general meeting of the Roller Flour Millers' Federation of India (RFMF), where he was asked the Centre’s take on exporting wheat products since India achieved record wheat production of 117.5 million tonnes in the 2024-25 rabi season.

"Keeping consumer interest and food security in mind, we will positively look into it," he said, and added that multiple ministries are involved in export decisions.

"The government's top priority is ensuring the country's food security…it needs to consider next year’s wheat production," he said. 

 

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India is the world's second-largest wheat producer after China. Since 2022, exports of wheat grain were banned, followed by exports of wheat products due to concerns over domestic food security, a smaller harvest, and rising inflation.
Currently, wheat flour exports are permitted only under ‘advance import authorisation’.

The demand for increase in exports of wheat products had been made by Navneet Chitlangia, president, RFMF, saying phased liberalisation of wheat product exports including atta (wheat flour), maida (refined flour), and suji (semolina) should be considered by the government.

"We suggest allowing a minimum quantity of 1 million tonnes of wheat products to leverage global markets," Chitlangia said.

The federation also called for a comprehensive study on the impact of Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles (DDGS) on cattle health, saying surplus DDGS, which India also imports from the EU, has disrupted traditional cattle feed markets and caused wheat bran prices to fall.

The industry body demanded the government reduce goods and services tax (GST) from 5 per cent to zero on consumer packs of wheat products up to 25 kg, and shift flour milling machinery to a 5 per cent GST rate from the current 18 per cent.

 

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