However, defenders of food security insist on the need of prioritizing local prices and guaranteeing domestic consumption before deciding the amount to export, The Hindu daily reported.

Russia and Ukraine export 25 percent of wheat in the world, but the conflict between both countries and western sanctions on Moscow have dramatically reduced this staple’s supply.

Many countries that imported wheat from these countries need urgent alternatives.

Whereas Russia and Ukraine exported 183 and 91 million tons of wheat, respectively, from 2017 to 2021, India exported a small fraction of its production, that is, only 12.6 million tons in this period.

The European Union (157 million tons), the United States (125 million tons), Canada (112 million tons) and Australia (83 million tons) also exported the largest amounts of wheat during this period.

India, second major exporter of wheat (613 million tons), only exported 2.0 percent of that amount as it allocated 80 percent of its production to domestic consumption and stored the rest.

pgh/aph/mem/abm