By The Daily Star

NEW DELHI: India can offer Iran quality wheat, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said on Tuesday, as the world's second-biggest wheat producer tries to trim the grain stocks and trade deficit with the sanction-hit Middle East country.

Wheat stocks with state-run Indian agencies are more than local requirement as the country produced a record 93.9 million tonnes in 2011/12.

"Our effort is to export quality wheat from states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, which are free from Karnal bunt," Pawar said at the annual Economic Editors Conference.

Karnal bunt is a fungal disease that deteriorates quality of wheat.

Refiners in India, Iran's second-biggest oil client after China, have been settling 45 percent of oil purchases from Tehran in rupees under a new payment mechanism, while continuing to pay the remainder in euros through Turkey's Halkbank.

 

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