Egypt has agreed to buy wheat from India following disruption in supplies because of the Ukraine war.

The African nation is looking to import 1 million tonnes (mt) from India, with an order for 240,000 tonnes in April, reports said.

Egypt imported wheat worth about $1.8 billion from Russia and $610.8 million from Ukraine in 2020.

“While the Russia-Ukraine war will increase inflation, there could be silver lining for rural India given Rs 500-600 billion additional profits from rabi crop in wheat and mustard and likely gains of Rs 1000-1500 billion for the dairy farming sector,” Amnish Aggarwal, director — research at Prabhudas Lilladher, said.

India, the world’s second biggest producer, is prepared to meet any extra demand for wheat from buyers in South Asia and Southeast Asia, and also from Europe, West Asia and North Africa, officials said.

The US has warned the greater the export the less will be the government procurement under the minimum support price (MSP) programme. The US agricultural department said procurement may be 30-35mt against the target of 44mt.

The US agricultural department’s report for 2022 said wheat production in India this fiscal will rise to 110mt from 30.9 million hectares of land up from 109.6mt from 31.1 million hectares.

“India is heading for a record wheat harvest this coming marketing year thanks to highly favourable weather conditions in the major wheat growing areas, “ the report said.

Exports in the last fiscal went up 54.50 per cent to 70 lakh tonnes and in the current fiscal, it is expected to rise to 100 lakh tonnes.

Wheat is exported mainly to neighbouring countries, with Bangladesh having the largest share of more than 54 per cent in both volume and value terms in 2020-21.

India has also entered new markets such as Yemen, Afghanistan, Qatar and Indonesia.