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Chitra Phadnis

BANGALORE, Feb. 20

MILLING of wheat in South India has declined by an average 30 per cent in the last few months. The reason: a shortage of wheat to mills.

``Our biggest problem is transportation,'' said the President of the Karnataka Roller Flour Mills Association, Mr Ashok Gupta. While the shortage of railway rakes has been hitting the headlines, the millers also resent the fact that they are given last priority when it comes to allocating rakes.

``We have deposited a total of Rs 30-40 crore with FCI for wheat to be sent to us,'' Mr M.K. Dattaraj, former President, KRFMA, said. The deposits were made 2-3 months back, and the millers have no idea when the payments will be honoured and the consignments will finally arrive.

About 27 of the total of 35 railway rakes are being used to transport grains to PDS outlets in the remote corners of the country, following last year's drought. Of the balance 8 rakes available to the public, priority is given to exporters over flour millers.

This, according to millers is unfair. After all, they say, exporters buy at low rates of Rs 4,000 per tonne when FCI rates are Rs 6,800 and market rates go up to Rs 8,000. (The subsidised rate for exporters is a part of the Government's policy to push exports. As exports were not possible at market rates, one of the highest in the world, the Government had announced huge subsidies.)

These rates are well below the cost to FCI of procuring the grains, storing and transporting them, said Mr Dattaraj. In effect, exports mean higher losses to FCI, whose costs are an estimated Rs 9,000 per tonne, he said.

The other urgency to export came from the 2001-02 crop, which had lost lustre because of untimely rains. There was a mandate to export the entire LLW (lustre-loss wheat) by March 2003 and get rid of all stocks.

A total of 9 million tonnes of wheat has been exported over the last one and a half years, and the aim is to take it up to 10 mt.

As long as exports are in focus, southern millers seem to be in for trouble. At the moment, open market prices are in the region of a high Rs 8,000 per tonne. Road transport is both expensive and inadequate. ``We need around 25-30 lorries a day, and only around 2 - 3 are available per miller,'' millers said.

They would even have considered imports just to keep the mills running, but for the 50 per cent duty on imports.

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