Wholesale wheat prices fall by 10% on Centre’s intervention – Indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: The wholesale wheat prices in major mandis of MP, Haryana, Punjab, UP and Rajasthan fell by up to 10% on Friday from the peak of Rs 2,950 per quintal on Wednesday, after the Centre announced open market sale of 30 lakh tonnes of the foodgrain till mid-March. In Delhi and Ghaziabad, the wholesale prices fell by Rs 200-300 per quintal by Friday afternoon, flour millers associations said.
“The wholesale prices of wheat across the country reduced by Rs 2-4 per kg and going by the trend the prices will reduce by Rs 5-6 per kg in the next few days,” said Pramod Kumar, president of Roller Flour Millers Federation. A Kolkata-based miller, Anjani Agarwal, said the wholesale wheat prices have started moderating and the full impact will be felt once the Food Corporation of India (FCI) starts e-auction.
Flour millers said the impact of the decision will be felt in the next two weeks when the retail prices of atta will reduce.
Giving details of the e-auction of wheat to bulk buyers such as millers, FCI chairman and MD Ashok Meena said the foodgrain from their stock will be sold across the country so that wheat and atta prices moderate. Officials said the corporation will be incurring a loss of around Rs 2-3 per kg on the wheat which would be sold in the open market. But the loss may reduce, if bulk buyers or millers buy the FCI wheat above the reserve price.
Meena said the FCI will go for the first e-auction of wheat on February 1 and a total of 25 lakh tonnes will be offered for bulk buyers or millers.