The government plans to bring all agricultural commodities under its export review and minimum export price (MEP) policy, a senior official said on the condition of anonymity. Currently, an inter-ministerial committee (IMC), chaired by the department of commerce (DoC), is responsible for the seasonal review of onion exports. In a recent meeting, the IMC recommended that the DoC “may also examine the export or MEP policy issues of other agriculture commodities and issue necessary orders in this regard”, the official said.

“The proposal related to the expansion of terms of reference of IMC in DoC for export or MEP issues on onion to other agriculture commodities has been placed before the meetings of CoS (committee of secretaries) and CoM (committee of ministers) for their consideration and approval,” the official added.

Queries sent to the DoC and the department of food and public distribution remained unanswered till press time.

“Putting curbs on exports is not the best idea. It comes in the way of decisions taken by farmers as they cannot take a medium-term view,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda. “That said, it can be only temporary and should have an end time. We have seen that when there is a supply shortfall, export curbs never really help lower prices as the market works based on demand-supply balances.” Sabnavis added that exports are only at the margin and do not affect price dynamics significantly. “In fact, having imports when there are shortfalls is a better approach.”

In an interview in November, Union consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, confirming a Mint report, said the Centre is prepared with a plan to ensure food security over the coming year, in the wake of an erratic monsoon that disrupted the crop calendar and spiked food prices this year. As part of the plan, the government is working to create a model to predict food prices that will factor in externalities like weather and trade-related measures.

Food inflation rose to 8.7% in November from 6.61% in October and 6.62% in September. This was largely caused by inflation in vegetables and pulses rising to 17.7% and 20.23%, respectively, in November, from 2.7% and 18.79% in October. Food and beverage inflation, too, went up to 8.02% in November from 6.24% in October.

In July, retail inflation rose to a 15-month high of 7.4%, led by a surge in food prices spurred by seasonal fluctuations.

This prompted the government to strengthen buffers for essential food items, make periodic open market releases, and ease imports of essential food items through trade policy measures.

The government also stepped in to prevent hoarding by revising stock limits and channelling supplies through designated retail outlets to curb inflation via means other than stringent trade policies.

The Centre wants to contain food prices ahead of the general elections in April-May. Over the past year, it has restricted exports of wheat, rice, onion and sugar, cut import duties on edible oils, and made arrangements to import pulses.

In November, it was also announced that the free foodgrain scheme, which provides 5 kg of grains every month to over 810 million people, will be extended till 2029.