India open to halting corn exports

FE/Bloomberg reports:

India may accede to a demand from poultry farmers and other users of corn to ban exports of the grain amid a domestic shortage caused by a fall in production, trade minister Kamal Nath said on Friday.

India may import corn for the first time in five years to meet a shortfall of at least 1 million tonne.

Production may fall 15% from a year earlier to 12.8 million tonne, Amol Sheth, president of All India Starch Association said on November 13.

“I’m open to it. The agriculture ministry is looking at production figures,” the trade minister told reporters in New Delhi.

Government jumping in everytime someone complains about rising prices will result atleast in one big problem. It would discourage development of the institutions, the financial infrastructure that might help people to take on these risks.