With a peak sale of 0.48 in the weekly e-auction for bulk buyers, the government’s open market sale scheme (OMSS) of wheat from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) storage on Wednesday exceeded a record 8.48 million tonne.
The wheat stock at FCI is at 11.93 , the lowest since 2016.Based on an assessment, the government stock is expected to drop to between 7.7 and 7.8 by April 1st, against a buffer of 7.4 after 10 of wheat was offloaded in the market. In Wednesday’s auction, the wheat was sold for an average price of Rs 2236 per quintal, which was higher than the reserve prices of Rs 2129 per quintal under the open market sale.
The price realized is marginally higher than the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2125/quintal for the current season.The year-over-year inflation rate for cereals decreased to 7.83% in December 2023 from 9.93%. from 4.69% in December of last year to 2.33% in January as a result of improved supply brought about by the FCI’s open market sales. The procurement of wheat for the April–June 2024–25 selling season would start on April 1.
Under OMSS, FCI has only sold 0.17 of rice on the market thus far.
