'Hoarding,high transport costs reasons for high pulses prices'

New Delhi: Hoarding, rising transportation cost and a lack of production are the main reasons behind rise in retail prices of pulses in the country, government said today.

"There has been a rise in the retail prices of pulses over the year. The main reason is the reduced availability following a decline in production of pulses from 19.25 million tonnes in 2013-14 to 17.20 million tonnes in 2014-15 on account of adverse weather conditions," he told the Lok Sabha.

He said the other factors responsible for high prices of pulses are hoarding, rise in transportation cost and black-marketing.

14 state governments have carried out 14,134 raids resulting in the seizure of 1,30,606 tonnes of pulses.

Paswan said countries like Canada, Africa and Myanmar which used to export pulses to India were also facing production shortfall.