The government has decided to sell FCI wheat to bulk consumers from June in states of Punjab and Haryana, while in other wheat growing states from July. The government is taking this step in order to liquidate surplus stocks and improve supply in the open market.
The state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) started offloading wheat from April 1, under the open market sale scheme (OMSS) to non-wheat producing states at a reserve price of Rs 1,550 per quintal plus freight charges. FCI has so far been able to sell only 400 tonnes wheat in non-wheat growing states.
FCI had stock of 34.1 million tonnes (MT) of wheat, as on May 01, while the buffer requirement was only 21 MT as on April 1. The stocks are rising in view of ongoing procurement of wheat from 2014-15 crop at the support price. FCI sold around 4.5 MT of wheat in 2014-15 fiscal as against the target of 10 MT.