FCI sells 1.54 lakh tonnes of wheat at ₹2,153/quintal in latest e-auctions

The Indian Government has been able to keep wheat prices on leash through its open market sales scheme (OMSS) as the selling prices on Wednesday’s e-auction remained at last week’s level. In the e-auctions on August 16, wheat prices dropped significantly.

In the ninth round of e-auction held Wednesday, out of two lakh tonnes (lt) of wheat offered for sales from 484 depots, 1.54 lt were sold out at average ₹2,152.54/quintal, official sources said. Out of 3.29 lt of rice offered from 289 depots, 10,550 tonnes were sold.

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The weighted average selling price was ₹2,166.95/quintal for fair average quality (FAQ) wheat against the reserve price of ₹2,150/quintal and average selling price of under relaxed specifications (URS) variety was ₹2,150.08/quintal against the reserve price of ₹2,125/quintal. The weighted average selling price of rice was ₹3,023.33/quintal against reserve price of ₹2,971.34/quintal.

Achieving objective

In the current tranche of e-auctions, the reduction in retail price is being targeted by offering up to 100 tonnes maximum for a buyer for wheat and 1,000 tonnes for rice. This decision is to encourage small and marginal end users and to ensure that more participants could come forward and bid for the quantity from their depot of choice, officials said.

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As there has been demand from processors to raise maximum quantity of wheat to be purchased by them to at least 500 tonnes per round, officials said there was no such need for now since the objective of reduction in prices is getting achieved through the current policy.

In order to avoid hoarding of stocks, traders were kept out from the ambit of wheat sale under OMSS (D) and regular checks/inspections are being made at the flour mills of the processors who have purchased wheat from the FCI, sources said. A total quantity of 11.27 lt of wheat have been sold out so far after weekly auction started from June 28. The government intends to sell 50 lt of wheat and 25 lt of rice through auction under the OMSS scheme.