Centre discusses pulse price situation with retailers

The central government on Tuesday discuseed a host of issues related to pulses with industry body Retailers Association of India (RAI). The meeting, chaired by Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare, included major organised retail chains and covered retailers' concerns including trends in major pulses. The development comes at a time when the country has entered the festive season, typically characterised by a pickup in retail demand across sectors.  

The association, which represents the interests of online and offline retailers in the country, sought government action to contain the prices of such commodities in a fair range. 

There has been a fall averaging 10 per cent in the wholesale prices of tur and urad in the past three months, however retail prices have not seen similar trends, the Consumer Affairs Secretary highlighted. 

The official also pointed out diverging trends between wholesale mandi prices and retail prices, indicative of increasingly unwarranted margins that retailers are extracting out of the market dynamics. The trends are being closely tracked and necessary measures will have to be initiated if the divergences are found to be widening, she said. 

The sowing area dedicated to kharif pulses has been recorded at about 7 per cent higher levels over the past year with good conditions, added the Consumer Affairs Secretary.

"Kharif urad and moong have started arriving in the markets while imports of tur and urad from East African countries and Myanmar are arriving steadily to augment the domestic production. The comfortable domestic availability situation is also evident from the fact that the quantity of pulses stock disclosed by big-chain retailers in the stock disclosure portal of the Department of Consumer Affairs has been increasing every week," the official said. 

Food cooperatives NAFED and NCCF will engage in activities such as the registration and seeds distribution with farmers in the upcoming rabi season.

The Consumer Affairs Secretary asked the retail industry to extend all possible support to the government in its efforts to ensure affordable pulse prices for the consumers.