India Lifts Wheat Export Ban Imposed After Russia-Ukraine War
The government has allowed exports of wheat flour and other products like maida and semolina, according to notifications of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade
New Delhi: The government has lifted the year-long ban on the export of wheat, including the Durum variety grain, with immediate effect. The government has allowed exports of wheat flour and other products like maida and semolina, according to notifications of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade. India is one of the world’s biggest wheat producers.
The latest development builds on a decision by the government in February to allow limited shipments of the grain.
In February, the government had allowed limited shipments of wheat.
"The export policy of wheat....is revised from prohibited to free with immediate effect," one of the notifications stated.
Russia-Ukraine War's Effect on India's Wheat Export
Wheat exports from the country have been largely prohibited since 2022 - the year Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. The two Black Sea nations rank among the world’s top exporters, and the outbreak of the war sent global wheat prices spiraling higher.
That briefly turned India, whose wheat prices typically aren’t competitive at the global level, into a major supplier. However, the government banned overseas sales shortly thereafter, citing food-security concerns as a heat wave threatened its domestic harvest.
Supplies have improved in the years since, with India’s last wheat harvest reaching an all-time high of 120.6 million tons. The US Department of Agriculture is forecasting India’s domestic stockpiles to end the 2026-27 season at a record level, signaling a surplus is available.
A pickup in wheat shipments from India could help ease supply pressures in import-dependent countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East at a time when Black Sea grain flows are being disrupted anew. Ukraine and Russia have recently escalated attacks on commercial vessels and ports in the region, sending Chicago wheat futures to a two-year high.
Russia rejected a truce offered by Ukraine to end attacks on ships carrying agricultural commodities through the Black Sea, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said over the weekend.
Still, the shift comes as India emerges as an importer of some other agricultural commodities. The government last week allowed mills and refiners to bring in as much as 1 million tons of raw sugar duty-free to cool record domestic prices.
