The Government has reduced the floor price for wheat exports by $40 a tonne to $260. This is to make Indian wheat shipments more viable in the global market.
On Wednesday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the cut in minimum export price or floor price to $260 a tonne from the earlier $300, official sources said. This follows the poor response to the recent tenders floated by State entities — STC, MMTC and PEC to export about 1.6 lakh tonnes. Against a floor price of $300 a tonne, the bids received by these entities ranged between $260 and $267 a tonne, forcing the Government to drop the price.
The Government has decided to ship out wheat to cut surplus stocks and create space for other cereals such as rice, for which paddy procurement is currently on in Punjab and Haryana. The State entities had exported 4.2 mt of wheat in fiscal 2012-13 and the value of these shipments was $1.4 billion. The average price fetched by the Indian wheat stood at $311.38 per tonne last fiscal.