No takers for FCI’s rice at ₹31/kg, wheat offtake doubles in 2 weeks
The purchase of wheat in the third round of the online auction, as part of the center’s Open Market Sale (OMSS) plan to tame rising food grain prices, saw sales exceed 42 percent of the 4.18 thousand tons offered on Wednesday. . This was against a 21 percent buy in the first round.
However, Rice continued to find few takers with only 0.07 percent of the 3.63 liters sold in the current round. But buying was higher than last week at 290 tons.
In the online auction (which was held on Wednesday), 1.77 liters of wheat and 290 tons of rice were sold. An official said wheat saw a 38 percent increase in sales while there was a 70 percent increase in rice compared to the last online auction. The auction was held for wheat through warehouses and rice through 251 warehouses in the country.
Government claims on bids
As part of the Center’s initiative to control the retail prices of rice and wheat atta (wheat flour), Food Corporation of India (FCI) conducts weekly electronic auctions to allow retailers, processors and merchants to buy from Central Pool inventory.
The government claims that by capping the bid quantity at 100 tons per entity in each auction, the quantity sold has reached the target division. Officials said the decision is to encourage small and marginal end-users and ensure more participants can step up and bid for the quantity from the warehouse of their choice.
However, traders said that by capping wheat purchases at a maximum of 100 tons, only middlemen would buy and sell to others at par with market prices. “No small attacomplain (Flour mill) you buy from FCI, no roller mill (big processor) gets enough quantity,” said a trader who has been in the wheat business for 37 years. On average, a roller flour mill requires 2,000 to 3,000 tons per month and in online auction They can purchase a maximum of 400 tons per month.
Flour millers are interested in buying from FCI through auction as the government has kept the standard reserve price at low – 2,150/quintal for fair average quality (FAQ) variety and $2,125 for grain under comfort specification (URS). While the average wholesale market price of wheat in north India is currently hovering at $2,300-2,350/quintal, traders said.
4 rice buyers
In the current round, wheat has sold at a weighted average of ₹2,156.67/quintal for the FAQ and at ₹2,138.05 for the URS.
The rice auction saw only four successful bidders, two from Maharashtra and one each from Kerala and Karnataka with the combined sale at 290t. The weighted average selling price was $3,110.07/quintal versus the reserve price of $3,100/quintal.