The government is planning to offload 7-8 million tonnes of fresh wheat in the open market at Rs 1,890 per quintal rate for meeting the demand from flour millers and other bulk consumers.
The open market sale scheme (OMSS) is likely to be launched for disposal of wheat for the 2018-19 marketing year (April-June). The rate at which the grain will be offloaded would be around Rs 100 per quintal higher than the last year. Last year, the OMSS rate for wheat was fixed at Rs 1,790 per quintal - ex-Ludhiana.
As on June 1, the government was holding a wheat stock of 44 million tonnes. Its procurement agency FCI has purchased 35.5 million tonnes of fresh wheat in 2017-18. As per the government’s third estimate, wheat production is estimated to have been 98.51 million tonnes in the 2017-18 crop year that ended last month.