Punjab: 92% wheat at mandis bought, but only 19% of it moved

By Neel Kamal

Wheat arrivals in Punjab mandis crossed 61 lakh metric tonnes (MT) on Tuesday, with procurement keeping pace but lifting of grain from markets lagging behind.

Over 92% of wheat that had arrived had been purchased by govt agencies, but only 19.4% had been lifted so far. Procurement means the amount of crop that has been bought by govt and private agencies, while lifting refers to the amount of purchased wheat that has been moved out of mandis to storage depots. A delay in this leads to stocks piling up in markets.

On Tuesday, arrivals remained above 10 lakh MT for the third straight day, with 10.75 lakh MT arriving and 10.69 lakh MT being purchased. Total procurement reached 56.97 lakh MT against 61.48 lakh MT arrivals. The Food Corporation of India had bought just 83,763 MT of wheat so far, about 1.5% of the total procurement. Unsold wheat stood at 4.5 lakh MT.

Only 11.1 lakh MT wheat has been lifted so far, including 3.63 lakh MT on Tuesday, leading to growing congestion in mandis. Punjab expects around 122 lakh tonnes of wheat arrivals this season.

This article has been republished from The Times of India.