The government has sufficient stock of foodgrains compared to buffers to carry out market intervention to curb spike in cereals prices in the coming months, said Ashok Kumar Meena, chairman and managing director, Food Corporation of India, on Friday.
Meena said that the corporation currently has 36.46 million tonne (MT) of wheat and rice against the buffer of 21.41 MT for January 1. This grain stock excludes 23.74 MT of the rice to be received from the millers.
“After selling 10 MT of wheat in the open market, we may use buffer stock for the purpose of curbing the possibility of rise in prices in coming months,” an official said.
FCI so far has sold 4.81 MT of wheat from its stock through weekly e-auctions.
At present, wheat stock with FCI is 18.42 MT, lowest since 2016 against the buffer of 13.8 MT for January 1.
For rice, the government has allocated 2.5 MT of rice under OMSS with a reserve price of Rs. 3100/quintal while the grain is being sold at Rs 2900/quintal as differential cost is covered by the price stabilization fund.
FCI has procured 56.9 MT of rice in 2022-23 season (October-September) against the requirement of around 40 MT for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana annually. This season also the corporation is aiming procuring atleast 55 MT of rice, Meena said.
However the corporation has sold only 0.11 MT of the rice in the open market through weekly auctions since July. To encourage higher OMSS sales, bulk buyers from next week will be allowed to bid for any quantity of rice from 1 – 2000 tonne in a weekly e-auction.