``They should have at least given us time before the levy was announced,''president of the Association Mohan Lal said last Friday. The Association hasaccused the northern lobby, which allegedly could not export wheat this yeardue to subdued international prices, of trying to push their inferiorquality wheat to southern states.

Taking objection to the Public Distribution System (PDS) secretary MDAsthana's remarks that southern roller flour millers have been resorting tolarge-scale imports of inferior quality wheat, members of the Associationclaimed imports were being undertaken in strict adherence to the regulationsin vogue in the exporting countries. It is hard to imagine that advancedcountries like France and Australia would ever indulge in export of inferiorquality wheat, they reasoned out.

Asthana cautioned the millers against importing inferior quality wheat atlow prices and blending it with indigenous wheat for sale in the openmarket. The roller flour mills do not purchase wheat from the FoodCorporation of India, (FCI) throughout the year despite open sale of thecommodity by the Corporation. FCI godowns are saddled with excess stocks.According to joint managing director of Chennai-based Century Flour Mills GRavindran, there are different varieties of wheat available abroad to meetthe requirements of the end users.

``There are low protein and high protein content wheat, earmarked forspecific end use. We import a particular variety to meet the specificationsmentioned by our end users,''he said.

Wheat from Australia, for instance, is expensive by around $20 compared tothat imported from France and Bulgaria.

FCI usually sells only 70 per cent good quality wheat and the rest 30 percent is of poor quality affected by rains, Mohan Lal claimed.

The members of the association pointed out that poor storage facilities inthe country have resulted in sale of inferior quality wheat to the millers.

``The present day consumers are choosy and they demand only quality wheatflour. FCI cannot supply quality wheat. The Australian wheat has highnutritional value. Our plea is only to provide us a level playing field,''Ravindran said.