The Ukraine crisis might allow India to export more wheat to Bangladesh, Egypt, and Turkey and export eggs to the Middle East. Sources said even though exporters of engineering goods have been putting their consignments to Russia to a halt amid the banking sanctions being imposed on the country.
Russia accounts for more than 18 percent of international exports making it the largest exporter of wheat while India and Ukraine compete in the Middle East in eggs export. An official said that they are expecting some benefits in the agricultural exports such as wheat and poultry if India remains neutral in the Ukraine Crisis.
As per sources, India’s central pool of wheat is twice more than the buffer and strategic needs at 24.2 million tons. Sources informed that both Russia and Ukraine cover more than 70 percent of Egypt’s wheat demand. Turkey was the biggest buyer of Russian wheat in the 2021-2022 crop year, purchasing 4.5 million metric tons while Egypt bought 3.2 million metric tons. Russia and Ukraine exported more than a quarter of the world’s wheat together in 2019.
Another official stated that the main import from Russia is petroleum and that there are enough other substitute sources available to fill in that gap. Ukraine exports edible oils, fertilizers, petroleum products; India exports several products including pharmaceutical supplies.
India’s largest items of import from Ukraine are animal and vegetable fats and oils. According to sources, the current situation won’t adversely impact India’s trade position since the share of this commodity out of India’s total imports of this item from all over the world is only 10 percent.
