Unseasonable rains and hail hit winter-sown crops such as wheat, rapeseed and chickpeas in India's main producing regions, delaying harvesting, the Indian industry and *** said.
Unfavorable weather could limit the growth of wheat production and complicate efforts to build stocks.
This year's wheat harvest is crucial for India, the world's largest grain producer after China. In 2022 and 2023, hot and unusually warm weather cut India's wheat production, resulting in a significant reduction in national reserves.
A third consecutive poor harvest would leave India with no choice but to import some wheat. So far, calls to import wheat have been resisted, which seemed unpopular until the beginning of the year.
Wheat production will definitely be affected as all wheat-producing states from Punjab and Haryana in the north to the state of ** in central India have reported losses, a New Delhi-based global ** company trader said.
India** said last week that wheat production could be up 13%, reaching a record 11.2 billion tonnes, but the first traders now say that production will be much lower than expected.
A Mumbai-based businessman said: "Just because of a week of bad weather, production could drop by at least 2 million to 3 million tons. Hot weather is expected in the second half of March. We don't know how much pressure this will put on the crop. ”。
Like wheat, canola is also grown mainly in the northern states. Lower-than-expected canola production could force the world's largest edible oil importer to continue buying expensive palm oil, sunflower oil and soybean oil overseas.
Anil Chatar, a businessman based in Jaipur, in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, said canola production is expected to be at least 5 percent lower than the industry expected before the crop was damaged by rainfall.
"Harvesting canola has already started in many places, but now it will be delayed due to rains," he said. ”。
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