Wheat arrivals start, prices above MSP
By Sandip Das
The arrival of the newly harvested wheat crops for the current season (2023-24) has started to arrive in the mandis of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, officials and traders said.
Officials said arrivals of wheat are being reported across several states, initial prices are ruling around the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2275/quintal for the season.
Arrivals in Sehore, one of the largest mandi in Madhya Pradesh on Monday was around 12,000 quintals and prices are ruling in the range of Rs 2250/quintal to Rs 2400.quintal.
“The arrival of wheat will pick up in the next two weeks,” Gagan Gupta, a trader from Sehore , said.
The government is likely to commence procurement operations in Gujarat and Maharashtra by next week, while the state agency in Madhya Pradesh will begin MSP operations on March 22.
Uttar Pradesh, the biggest producer of grain, had announced commencing purchase of wheat from farmers from March 1, followed by Rajasthan (March 10) and Bihar (March 15).
“We can report about the wheat purchase by government agencies by next week,” an official told FE.
Punjab and Haryana, key contributors to the central pool stock will officially commence from April 1.
This year’s wheat procurement is keenly watched as the grain stock held with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) at the beginning of the month has plummeted to 10 million tonne (MT), lowest since 2016.
Lower stock with FCI is because of aggressive offloading of a record 9.4 MT of wheat in the open market to curb rise in prices.
The government has estimated an initial procurement target for the 2024-25 marketing season (April-June) to be around 30 – 32 MT against 26.2 mt purchased from the farmers under minimum support price (MSP) operations.
While the Rajasthan government has announced providing a bonus of Rs 125/quintal over the MSP to farmers, sources said that Madhya Pradesh is likely to announce a bonus at similar level over the MSP for boosting procurement of grain.
Meanwhile, unseasonal rains and hailstorms in pockets of the wheat growing states in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab are likely to impact standing crops.
“While recent rains and hailstorm has impacted the standing crops in several states, the output is unlikely to be impacted,” Devendra Vohra, a grain analyst based in Vasi mandi Mumbai, said.
The agriculture ministry in ites second advance estimate of foodgrain productions for 2023-24 crop year (July-June) has estimated wheat outputat 112 MT, which is marginally higher from the previous crop year.
This article has been republished from The Financial Express.