Imports surge as pulse production dips

The import of pulses has reached an all-time high of 1.32 million tonnes ($918m) in just 10 months of FY25, breaking the record of 1.315m tonnes ($946m) achieved during the full fiscal year of 2022-2023. After breaking the record, the import of pulses is heading close to 1.5m tonnes in FY25 to become a new record for any fiscal year in the history of pulse imports, as July-May FY25 imports have already reached 1.4m tonnes ($970m). The demand and supply gap triggered by low local crop production has led to this record-breaking import of pulses, which is certainly not an achievement, as rising imports usually drain out precious foreign exchange, while rupee devaluation against the dollar makes imports further expensive. In the country’s overall food import bill of $7.619 billion during July-May FY25, pulses imports hold the second spot after palm oil’s massive import of 3.037m tonnes ($3.2bn).