Pvt wheat purchase surges to 1L tonnes
CHANDIGARH: Wheat procurement by private players has shot up to nearly 1 lakh tonnes within two weeks of the current rabi marketing season, which kicked off on April 1, accounting for 6% of the total purchase in Punjab till Wednesday.
Amid these encouraging trends, the state’s food and civil supplies department is expecting the total purchase by traders to touch 10 lakh tonnes by the end of this season. In the previous eight years, the data for which is readily available, the highest private purchase stood at 2.9 lakh tonnes, recorded in the 2014 rabi season.
A total of 20.6 lakh tonnes of wheat has arrived till April 13 across mandis and purchase centres set up across the state. While the government agencies —Pungrain, Punsup, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation and Markfed besides the Centre’s Food Corporation of India (FCI) — have procured 16.8 lakh tonnes, the purchase by private players has touched 99,637 tonnes.
In fact, private purchase picked up on Wednesday, jumping by 43,000 tonnes. In the last season, private purchase had not even started in the corresponding period and could touch just 1.17 lakh tonnes by the end of the season. In 2020, it stood at a mere 56,000 tonnes.
With Ukraine and Russia — two major wheat exports worldwide — locked in a bloody war, it was being expected that Punjab and other wheat-producing states in India would witness an upswing in crop purchases by private players.
“Punjab being away from the port is logistically not a favoured market for private traders and multinational companies that export food grains. However, the war is certainly having a spillover effect on Punjab, leading to an increase in private purchase,” said a food department official, adding that the rate being offered by private players is ₹2,050 per quintal, higher than the minimum support price (MSP) of ₹2,015.
“The trend is encouraging so far. We are hopeful of making a new record in wheat procurement by private players,” said secretary, food and civil supplies, Gurkirat Kirpal Singh. The state department has made arrangements for a total wheat purchase of 135 lakh tonnes.
Sangrur district leads in state
Sangrur district, which leads the state in purchase by private players, has seen arrival of 2.95 lakh tonnes of wheat in grain markets, of which 2.67 lakh tonnes has been procured. Private traders account for 37, 170 tonnes, mostly bought from grain markets located in the district’s urban areas.
“Traders, especially owners of flour mills, are procuring wheat from grain markets situated in urban areas. Of 20, 457 tonnes of wheat that arrived at the grain market in Sangrur city, 13,225 tonnes was purchased by flour mills,” said district mandi officer (DMO) Jaspal Singh Ghuman.
Besides Sangrur, Ludhiana (17,065 tonnes), Patiala (15,520), Faridkot (8,955) and Mohali (5,127) are among the top five districts when it comes to wheat procurement by private players.
According to Ludhiana district food and supply officer Harveen Kaur, the district’s figures also include purchase at the Khanna mandi, which is known to be Asia’s biggest grain market.
Glut-like situation in south Malwa
Private players are showing keen interest in buying wheat in South Malwa belt too, offering up to ₹2,150 per quintal against the MSP of ₹2,015. However, the tardy purchase and lifting of wheat are leading to a glut-like situation in grain markets.
Of 50,975 tonnes of wheat arrival in Bathinda district till April 12, only 13,440 tonnes were purchased by different agencies and just 5,632 tonnes were lifted. Mansa district reported wheat arrival of 1.46 lakh tonnes till April 12, while the figures stood at 53,090 tonnes in the corresponding period last year. Meanwhile, a total of 43,180 tonnes were reported unsold, and 15,335 tonnes were lifted.
Balwinder Singh, a 64-yearold farmer from Gulabgarh village, has been waiting at the Bathinda grain market since Monday morning. “My grain stock was tested with optimum moisture content level on Monday, but even after days, it is lying unsold. The season has just begun and the mandi is nearly full,” he said on Wednesday. Bathinda DMO Preet Kanwar
Brar said the authorities have geared up to strengthen the procurement operations.
It’s an encouraging trend so far. We are hopeful of setting a new record. GURKIRAT KIRPAL SINGH, secretary, food and civil supplies
Procurement picks up pace in Majha, Doaba
Even as wheat arrival picked up pace at grain markets in Majha belt, the procurement is mainly being done by state agencies. Till April 12, 2,359 tonnes of wheat had arrived in mandis of Amritsar district, of which 1,654 tonnes were purchased by government agencies and just 155 tonnes by private players, said DMO Amandeep Singh.
The situation is similar in Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur districts. In Tarn Taran, of 23,113 tonnes of wheat that arrived till April 12, only 67 tonnes were purchased by traders while 12,237 were procured by state agencies. In Gurdaspur, private traders bought a paltry nine tonnes of wheat against 1,370 tonnes procured by government agencies out of the total arrival of 1,517 tonnes.
In Doaba, initial trends show that private players are purchasing more wheat and at higher rates as compared to the last year’s figures. For example, in Kapurthala district, private purchase stood at 158 tonnes till April 13 in 2021, but has reached 3,248 tonnes in the same period this year. Similar trends were seen in SBS Nagar district, though Jalandhar is still lagging behind in wheat arrivals.