India to export 90k tonnes of surplus wheat to Afghanistan, Lebanon

New Delhi, Apr 11: India said it will export 90,000 tonne of surplus wheat to Afghanistan and Lebanon under government-to-government (G2G) trading arrangement.

"India had a good crop of wheat, in surplus of its own demand. On specific demand from countries, cooperative NAFED has been asked to export 50,000 tonne wheat to Afghanistan and 40,000 tonne to Lebanon under G2G arrangement," the Union Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

The government is having a stock of about 23 million tonne of wheat and 54 million tonne of rice, which is much more than its requirement.

Right now, harvesting of wheat -- the main winter crop -- is underway in India. Farmers have harvested wheat crop in about 33 per cent of the total sown area so far and it will pick up in the coming weeks.

As per the second government estimate, the country is set to harvest a record wheat production of 106.21 million tonne in the 2019-20 crop year on the back of good rains.

Wheat production has been rising year-on-year and the previous record of 103.60 million tonne was achieved during the 2018-19 crop year (July-June).