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The wheat offtake in the e-auction held by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) continues to be robust even after the government increased the offer by over 12 per cent. Of the 4.5 lakh tonnes (lt) offered in the weekly auction held on January 17, as much as 4.26 lt (or 95 per cent) have been sold.
“When the offtake was around 95 per cent for a few weeks, the government had raised the offer in weekly auction to 4 lt from 3 lt from December 13. the offer further raised to 4.5 lt in last auction, still the offtake is about 95 per cent. Even the maximum limit per bidder has been enhanced to 300 tonnes from 250 tonnes. This shows the demand will continue to remain robust until next crop arrives and whatever quantity the government offers, over 90 per cent is likely to be sold,” said a flour miller.
With 4.26 lt sold in last auction, FCI has so far sold 66.77 lt since it started selling wheat to augment open market availability from June 28.
Apt for biscuits
The average selling price of wheat was ₹2,263.81/quintal in FCI’s weekly e-auction on Wednesday against ₹2,234.37 in the previous week whereas it was ₹2,172.94/quintal on December 13.
The highest price in Karnataka was ₹2,810 a quintal and 30 per cent of the wheat lifted at over ₹2,750.
“The quality of wheat offered from a particular depot in Karnataka is suitable for biscuits as the grain is from Punjab/Haryana whereas a particular variety in other depots command lower rates since those are not suitable for biscuits,” said a miller. Only 3,500 tonnes of wheat were sold in the range of ₹2,760-2,810/quintal whereas 8,550 tonnes were sold between ₹2,125 and ₹2,350, the miller said.
The government has kept the reserve price of wheat in the auction at about ₹2,129/quintal — much below the economic cost of the grain which is now ₹2,703, the official said.
Prices in North, East
In the last auction, the average selling prices in the northern and eastern regions were more than the minimum support price of ₹2,275/quintal, whereas in other regions the prices were between ₹2,181 and ₹2,231.
Both in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the highest bidding price was ₹2,625, in Haryana it was ₹2,530, in Maharashtra ₹2,465, in both Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat ₹2,430 and in Rajasthan ₹2,375/quintal.
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