China has stepped up purchases of pulses such as kidney beans and Kabuli chana (chickpea) from India in recent years to meet its growing demand. In the 2022-23 fiscal, China emerged as the biggest buyer of Indian pulses, displacing UAE, with the import value exceeding $100 million for the first time.
APEDA data reveal that Chinese imports of Indian pulses stood at $102.41 million during the April-January period of 2022-23 over $89.03 million in the entire 2021-22, a 15 per cent growth. During this period, India’s overall pulses exports increased to $476 million, an increase of 25 per cent over $379 million in the previous fiscal.
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Chinese purchases of Indian pulses in sizeable quantities, which started during the Covid pandemic, have sustained and grown multi-fold over the past couple of years. There is a five-fold increase in the volume of pulses exports to China from India over the past four years, while in terms of value, they have more than trebled during the last three years (see table).
Changing food habits
“China is coming up as a very big consumer of pulses in the past few years. Their food habits are changing and consumption is increasing year by year,” said Harsha Rai, Vice President – Sales at Mayur Global Corporation, an international broker of pulses.
Rai said China, which used to export the light-speckled kidney beans (LSKB) (Rajma-Chitra) to India earlier, has now turned an importer. For the past two years, China has been importing LSKB from India. At the same time India has turned to origins such as Brazil to meet its demand for LSKB, Rai said.
Also, the Chinese have stepped up the purchases of Kabuli chana from India, which they used to buy earlier from Turkey. Further, Rai said Chinese demand for the Indian cowpeas, especially the orange-coloured variety grown in the Mysore region, had surged during the pandemic period. China has been buying all kinds of pulses including mung beans from all origins, she added.
Lower duty
APEDA chairman, M Angamuthu, said China is imposing lower import duty for pulses compared to other countries. India’s pulses production has increased steadily over the past few years, supporting the exports of some varieties.
India is the largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses globally. India’s overall pulses production has risen from around 18.3 million tonnes in 2012-13 to around 27.81 million tonnes during 2022-23, as per the second advance estimates, released by the Agriculture Ministry in mid-February. A shortfall in the production of pulses such as tur (pigeon pea) and urad, due to climate issues has forced the government to keep the imports open for these varieties till March 2024.