Wheat procurement, which took off late due to delayed harvest in northern regions, has surpassed the purchases by government agencies of 18.79 million tonnes for the whole of 2022. Year-on-year, the buying surged by 31 per cent to 19.52 million tonnes (mt) as of April 26 from 14.89 mt a year ago, according to the latest official data. For this year, the procurement target has been fixed at 34.15 mt.

Wheat procurement dropped to a 15-year low of 18.79 mt in 2022-23 season (April-March). “Robust procurement will help the government keep some quantity reserved for open market sales scheme (OMSS), which works as a deterrent against price rise. Due to low stock, the government could not dispose of any quantity in the open market when wheat prices started moving up significantly from October 2022,” said an official source.

Prices cool down

However, the January-26 decision to offload 3 mt and later additional 2 mt under OMSS had helped the government to cool prices down. Three days before the procurement season started on April 1, Ashok K Meena, Chairman and Managing Director of Food Corporation of India (FCI), had said wheat prices in mandis declined to ₹22-23/kg from ₹30/kg in the last week of January due to OMSS. FCI was able to sell 3.38 mt in the open market through auctions under OMSS.

According to Consumer Affairs Ministry data, the all-India average retail prices of wheat have come down to ₹29.06/kg as on April 26, a tad lower than ₹29.15/kg six months ago while that of atta (flour) is ₹34.33/kg now against ₹34.27/kg in October 2022. The average wholesale price of wheat is now slightly below what the rate was six months ago, but atta is marginally higher by about ₹40/quintal.

Also read: FCI sells 5.39 lakh tonnes of wheat in fifth round of e-auction under Open Market Sale Scheme

Procurement data show that mandi (agri terminal markets) prices in Madhya Pradesh have declined to as low as ₹1,780/quintal and in Rajasthan to ₹1,700/quintal. In Uttar Pradesh, the minimum price is better at ₹2,110/quintal. On the other hand, the maximum mandi rate in MP has been reported at ₹2,698/quintal, in Rajasthan ₹2,580/quintal and in UP ₹2,250/quintal on April 26.

State-wise break up

Punjab has shown an increase in purchases by 10.6 per cent to 8.99 mt as of April 26 from 8.13 mt a year ago. The target in Punjab has been fixed at 13.2 mt this year. It was Punjab that contributed the maximum wheat, more than half of total purchases made for the Central Pool last year and that saved the Centre when exporters and traders paid higher than MSP in other States.

Procurement in Madhya Pradesh is up by 67.2 per cent at 4.95 mt from 2.96 mt whereas the target is to buy 8 mt by June 15. Last year, the Centre could purchase only 4.6 mt against a target of 12.9 mt from the State. Haryana has reported a 46.8 per cent jump at 5.43 mt from 3.7 mt a year ago and the largest wheat-producing State Uttar Pradesh reported 4.8 per cent increase in procurement at 1,04,187 tonnes as on April 26 from 99,462 tonnes in the year-ago period, official data show.

Among other States, the government has bought 49,817 tonnes (against 749 tonnes year-ago) in Rajasthan and 8,345 tonnes in Chandigarh.

Over 1.49 million farmers have benefitted. The MSP value of the procured quantity is ₹41,473 crore.

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