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हिन्दी — Read in HindiPrices, procurement and food security
How food is priced, bought and distributed, and how food security is kept.
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Managing food prices through trade policy
Copy link to Managing food prices through trade policyPrelims and Mains
The Centre manages food prices with several tools: customs duty on imports, export restrictions, stock limits under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, open market sales from central stocks and the Price Stabilisation Fund.
- Customs duty cuts work quickly where India depends on imports, as in edible oils, where imports meet about 56 to 60 per cent of demand.
- Such cuts lower returns for domestic growers and can work against missions such as the National Mission on Edible Oils.
What changed
26 Sep 2026Newnewly added
- Ahead of the festival season the Centre cut basic customs duty on crude sunflower oil from 10 per cent to zero.
- Duty on crude soybean and crude palm oil fell from 10 to 5 per cent, and on refined sunflower oil from 32.5 to 22.5 per cent.
- The 2026 monsoon, weakened by a developing El Niño, had added supply risk to the festival season.
Mains: A duty cut calms prices quickly where India depends on imports, but it lowers growers' returns and can work against the National Mission on Edible Oils.