India may allow limited quantity of lentil (masur) import at zero duty from the US against 10 per cent now, highly placed sources said. However, there is unlikely to be a similar treatment for other pulses such as yellow peas and Kabuli chana.
A factsheet released by the White House on Tuesday said: “India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of US food and agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains (DDGs), red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, certain pulses, soybean oil, wine and spirits and additional products.” The mention of ‘certain pulses’ was not made in the joint agreement signed between India and the US last week.
Currently, the import duty on yellow peas is 30 per cent and on Kabuli chana 40 per cent, and there is also an agricultural cess of 10 per cent on the duty.
“If duty on 10 per cent becomes zero on masur, it will not have any impact except adding a sentimental value. Besides, the US is not known for a large grower of red lentils which are preferred in India and currently imported from Canada and Australia,” said Rahul Chauhan of I-Grain India. He said there will be a possibility of import of green lentils from the US, which produces them mainly when prices of tur [pigeon peas] are high in India.
no clarity
Chauhan further said there is no clarity on market access to yellow peas and Kabuli chana, the two commodities in which the US suppliers could not compete with other countries at the current level of duties. Trade experts warn that if import duty on yellow peas is reduced to zero, there may be a possibility of re-export of it from the US after buying from Canada.
Addressing the media on February 7, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had included some lentils in the agricultural items, where concession has been allowed to the US. However, it did not specifically say which are the other pulses apart from masur. While lentil in India is known as masur, it is used as a synonym for pulses in the US. Goyal had mentioned that while the import duty on some products will immediately be zero, for some other products, it will be done over a period.
Officials data show that masur import by India had dropped over 27 per cent to 12.19 lakh tonnes (lt) worth $916 million in 2024-25 from 16.76 lt worth 1.29 billion in 2023-24. Imports from US, however, had surged nearly four times to 69,945 tonnes worth $78.43 million in 2024-25 from 17,557 tonnes worth $21.11 million in 2023-24.
Large green lentils were trading near $0.26/lb FOB, with some buyers still open to nearby movement, said I-Grain in its wekly report on February 5. Extra large green lentils continued to trade around $0.22/lb FOB, and small green lentils were quoted near $0.20/lb FOB, it said. On the other hand, red lentils showed strength, with old-crop indications around $0.25/lb delivered and new-crop lentil pricing remains unchanged, with indicative levels at $0.24/lb.
Published on February 10, 2026