Govt allocates more wheat for open market sale
By Sandip Das
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) on Wednesday sold a record 0.42 MT of wheat to bulk buyers since the weekly e-auction was launched in June as the government increased weekly allocation of the grain from open market sale to 0.45 million tonne (MT).
This fiscal, FCI has sold 6.67 MT of wheat in the open market till Wednesday and the government is aiming to sell 10.1 MT from its surplus stock by the first week of March.
Wheat was sold in Wednesday’s auction at an average price of Rs 2,263/quintal against the reserve price of Rs 2,128/quintal under the open market sale scheme (OMSS). The price realised is just above the current season’s minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,125/quintal.
Inflation in wheat declined further to 4.69% in December from 6.36% in November on year because of improvement in supplies due to the open market sale. “The open market sale of wheat has helped in stabilising prices,” Ashok Kumar Meena, chairman and managing director, FCI, had stated recently. He said that the corporation is looking at selling wheat till the middle of March, which would result in grain stock falling close to the buffer of 7.46 MT by April.
On Tuesday, wheat stock with FCI was 15.14 MT, lowest since 2016 against the buffer of 13.8 MT for January 1. As per the earlier policy, the corporation had been selling surplus wheat to bulk buyers like flour millers only during the lean season (January-March). Procurement of wheat for the 2024-25 marketing season (April-June) would commence from April 1.
The corporation had sold 3.3 MT of wheat under OMSS in 2022-23. The highest quantity of wheat sold under OMSS was 8.1 MT in 2018-19. Officials said that because of the government’s intervention of selling wheat in the open market, the modal retail prices on Wednesday was Rs 28/kg, at the same level last year.
Under Bharat Atta initiative, FCI has allocated 0.4 MT of wheat to Kendriya Bhandar, farmers’ cooperatives Nafed and National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) for converting into ‘Bharat Atta’ which is being sold to consumers at Rs 27.5/Kg.
Meanwhile, the food ministry is considering proposals to sell rice at subsidised prices through retail outlets under the Bharat rice initiative. A food ministry said that the domestic prices of rice are at elevated levels despite a record output, ample stocks with FCI in the pipeline and various restrictions and duties imposed on grain exports.
This article has been republished from The Financial Express.