NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): Despite several measures that the Indian government has taken to tackle the rising food inflation rate, the food prices are expected to remain higher this year due the disparity between the demand and supply, said economic experts.

Food prices in the country moved abruptly about 11 year high in December 2009 on the back of weak monsoon, which affected the summer sown crops badly.

The government has taken counter steps including extending the duty free sugar import period, supplying the food grains from the national reserves and the state run agencies continued to supply the pulses at the subsidized prices into the spot market.

But “there is no escaping high prices this (fiscal) year (till March 31),” N. Bhanumurthy, an economist at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, a state-run research institute, was quoted by Dow Jones Newswire.

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Prices of food articles rose 19.17% on year in December with sugar rising 53.98%, pulses 41.58% and potatoes 123.85%. The wholesale price index, the country’s main gauge of inflation, rose 7.31% in December, according to provisional data.

India, the world’s largest consumer and currently a leading importer after production fell two years in a row, needs 23 million tons of sugar annually. The country is expected to produce only around 16 million tons in the crop year ending Sept. 30

Some of the provincial governments are also slow to utilize the full quota of food grains released by the central government for distribution through state-run welfare programs.

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