Imports of poppy seeds from Turkey, which were banned for about a year by court orders, will be resumed soon following lifting of the stay imposed earlier.

According to sources at the Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN), Gwalior, the Bangalore High Court vide its order dated February 9, 2018 has “dismissed all writ petitions relating to import of poppy seeds”.

Sales contract

Consequently, the Department of Revenue has now decided to register sales contract in accordance with its Guidelines of November 2016.

As in most cases, the validity of sales contract submitted by applicants in response to CBN Public Notice dated December 5, 2016 has since been expired, the Ministry has issued directions to allow submission of extension of the existing sales contracts.

The CBN, under the Ministry of Finance, has advised 471 applicants in the priority list for importing poppy seeds from Turkey through its Public Notice dated February 26, 2018 to submit extension letter of their existing sales contract latest by March 28, 2018.

Permits for import

Similarly, the sources said applications from 28 companies have been received for registration of sales contract for import of poppy seeds from China in pursuance to public notice dated January 10, 2018.

Of these, 22 companies are for white poppy seeds totalling 3,223 tonnes, while six are for 357 tonnes of yellow poppy seeds.

Issue of permits for import from Turkey has started this week for a total quantity of 16,000 tonnes “which is very small quantity as there are no stocks held in India following the Court stay on imports for about a year,”Dhirish Momaya, a Bengaluru-based importer told BusinessLine .

It might take four months for the commodity to land here, he said. Imports from China will come in during May, June and July, while 800 tonnes of poppy seeds from Czech Republic are expected in October, he said.

Crop prospects

Domestic consumption has been showing a steady growth every year with a requirement of 40,000 tonnes this year, Dhirish said.

The current crop is going to be only 20 per cent with 2,000 tonnes which is expected in May.

The decline in crop is attributed to unfavourable weather conditions and restriction on area under the crop, he said.

Global crop

During the absence of imports from Turkey for about a year, the demand was met from the inventories which have become fully depleted, he said. Today the prices are in the range of ₹550-600 a kg.

He said markets in Turkey have shot up following emergence of huge demand from India.

The new crop in Turkey is reported to be less and a similar scenario is said to be in case of Chinese and Czech crop, the trade claimed.

Imports in 2016-17 stood at 18,010 tonnes valued at ₹295.15 crore as against 24,075 tonnes valued at ₹268.48 crore in 2011-12, according to Spices Board sources.

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