<p>"The situation will definitely change after March-end," Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told reporters on the sidelines of a Vice Chancellors' conference of agricultural universities.<br /><br />Food inflation has been hovering around 17-18 per cent over the last few weeks, driven by high prices of certain items such as potatoes, pulses and sugar.<br /><br />Pawar, however, attributed the high level of inflation partly to low-base year.<br />He said the inflation is high because the current price is compared with the rates of the year-ago period.<br /><br />"We have to admit that prices of important items like rice, wheat, pulses and sugar are showing declining trends," he said.<br /><br />When asked about the recent decision of the government to allow sugar exports to the European Union, Pawar said he was not aware of it.<br /><br />Directorate General of Foreign Trade has recently allowed export of 10,000 tonnes of sugar to the EU.<br /><br />Commenting on the sugar price, Pawar said sugar futures in international markets are showing declining trend.<br /><br />The Minister also said that crop condition is good so far and the country may harvest more wheat than last year's record production of 80.58 million tonnes.</p>
<p>"The situation will definitely change after March-end," Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told reporters on the sidelines of a Vice Chancellors' conference of agricultural universities.<br /><br />Food inflation has been hovering around 17-18 per cent over the last few weeks, driven by high prices of certain items such as potatoes, pulses and sugar.<br /><br />Pawar, however, attributed the high level of inflation partly to low-base year.<br />He said the inflation is high because the current price is compared with the rates of the year-ago period.<br /><br />"We have to admit that prices of important items like rice, wheat, pulses and sugar are showing declining trends," he said.<br /><br />When asked about the recent decision of the government to allow sugar exports to the European Union, Pawar said he was not aware of it.<br /><br />Directorate General of Foreign Trade has recently allowed export of 10,000 tonnes of sugar to the EU.<br /><br />Commenting on the sugar price, Pawar said sugar futures in international markets are showing declining trend.<br /><br />The Minister also said that crop condition is good so far and the country may harvest more wheat than last year's record production of 80.58 million tonnes.</p>
