Russia, which is mulling diversifying to urad and tur production, is keen to strengthen pulses trade cooperation with India, the government said on Tuesday.

A Russian delegation led by Deputy Minister Maxim Titov had on Monday met Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare, discussing in details the possibility of enhancing the trade cooperation in the field of pulses.

The consumer affairs department, in a statement, said Russia has emerged as a major source of India's import of masur (lentils) and yellow peas from the recent past.

Apart from these two pulses, Russia is also contemplating to diversify its pulses production to urad (black matpe) and tur (pigeon pea), it said.

India is dependent on pulses imports to meet the domestic shortages of 3-4 million tonne.

On pulses availability in the country, the government said there is a significant ease in supply of key pulses like tur, urad and change since July 2024 due to better kharif prospect and continuous imports.

"The overall availability of pulses has been comfortable with robust inflow of imports of tur, urad, chana and yellow peas, this year," it said.

The tur crop is reported to be good and early harvest of tur crop in pockets of Karnataka has started.

Tur and urad imports for the 2024 calendar year, was at 10 lakh tonne and 6.40 lakh tonne, respectively, by the first week of November, have already exceeded the whole year import figures during last year.

The government said the arrival of chana imports from Australia in bulk cargoes are expected from November.

The recent diversification of source countries for pulses played an important role in ensuring continuous inflows at increasingly competitive rates, it added.

Meanwhile, the preliminary reports of rabi sowing for chana, masur, urad, and moong indicates that initial delay in some states due to prolonged rainfall are now recovering the lag in area coverage.

"Overall sentiment and sowing intention are reported to be upbeat because of good price realisation," the statement added.

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