IN SHORT: India's wheat to cross forecast

India's wheat output in 2011/12 will cross the current official forecast of a record 88.31 million tonnes due to favourable weather conditions, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said on Friday. The bumper harvest, on top of ample stockpiles, will benefit local farmers and traders, who have struggled to make overseas sales as international prices have been lower.
India has allowed exports of two million tonnes of wheat, easing a ban on overseas sales imposed in 2007, but shipments have only been around 500,000 tonnes. India, the world's second-biggest wheat producer, harvested a record 86.87 million tonnes of the grain in 2011.