Food Corporation of India has sold over nine lakh tonnes of wheat in two days of e-auction. It has offered 22 lakh tonnes of wheat for e-auction from the Central pool to the market through various routes under the Open Market Sale Scheme.
Consumer Affairs Ministry said this was done to address the rising price of wheat and Atta in the country.
In the e-auction, more than one thousand bidders came forward for participation in the first week and a quantity of 9.20 lakh tonnes were sold across the country.
The sale of wheat through e-auction will continue throughout the country on every Wednesday till second week of March 2023.
The Ministry said the e-auction has already left an impact of fall in market prices of wheat by more than ten per cent in the past one week.
In the first week of e-auction quantities ranging from of 100 to 499 MT had maximum demand followed by quantities of 500-1000 MT followed by 50-100 MT indicating that small and medium flour millers and traders actively participated in the auction. Only 27 bids were received for the maximum quantity of 3000 MT at one go.
Weighted average rate of Rs. 2474/Qtl was realised by FCI in the auction. Rs. 2290 Crore was generated by FCI in the e-auction conducted in the first week of February.
From the 3 LMT wheat allocated to Government PSUs/cooperatives/Federations like Kendriya Bhandar, NCCF and NAFED for sale without e-auction at the concessional rate of Rs 2350/Qtls for converting wheat to Atta and offer it to public at an Maximum Retail Price of Rs. 29.50 per Kg. NCCF is allocated 50000 MT of wheat across 7 states.
Allotment of 1 LMT wheat is made to NAFED and 1 LMT wheat made to Kendriya Bhandar under this scheme to bring down the price of Atta across the country. Kendriya Bhandar has launched the scheme for selling Atta under the said scheme. NAFED is set to start the scheme across 8 states.
The e-auction has already left an impact of fall in market prices of wheat by more than 10 per cent in the past one week, an official release said, adding that the prices are set to fall further after the wheat sold in the e-auction is lifted and Atta is made available in the market.