The latest round of e-auction on Wednesday under the Centre’s Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) witnessed a big jump in selling prices of wheat. The resulted in indications that more quantity could be offered in the following rounds after the government announcement of the release of additional 50 lakh tonnes (lt) of wheat and 25 lt of rice.

As much as 1.08 lt of wheat got sold out of 1.09 lt offered with the weighted average price being ₹2,254.71 per quintal.

The highest price in the auction was recorded at ₹2,685/quintal in Maharashtra, whereas in the previous week the all-India highest price was ₹2,500 in West Bengal and Maharashtra, offered by two buyers.

Right decision, right time

Trade sources said 10 tonnes of wheat were purchased by Krishna Maai Food Industries from Pune depot at ₹2,685/quintal, followed by 100 tonnes, again, from Pune at ₹2,680 by Sangli Roller Flour Mills.

The highest bid price was ₹2,600 in West Bengal, ₹2,575 in Assam, ₹2,430 in Madhya Pradesh, ₹2,420 in Jharkhand, ₹2,415 in Rajasthan, ₹2,400 in Odisha, and ₹2,380 in Uttarakhand, ₹2,375 in Bihar and ₹2,320 in Gujarat, trade sources said.

“A good decision taken by the government at the right time. But to ensure the prices to be contained, the offer quantity in every tender should be double the total quantum of wheat can be lifted by the eligible bidders of that State,” said a wheat processor.

Currently, if the offered quantity is 5,000 tonnes for a State even if there are 100 bidders who need a total of 10,000 tonnes at the current guidelines of a maximum of 100 tonnes per bidder. This has created a demand and flared up the prices continuously, traders said.

Rice rises

Though sold out quantity of rice increased in the current auction to 1,500 tonnes from 150 tonnes in the previous round, the government has decided to cut the reserve price by ₹200 per quintal to ₹2,900 from next round.

The weighted average selling price of rice in current round was ₹3,163.53 per quintal. Though it is down from the first round on July 5 when the realised rate was ₹3,175.35, still it has shown an increase as the auction rates had dropped to ₹3,100/quintal on July 19. The government was expecting the decline to continue after the export ban on white (raw) rice, but on the contrary, it started moving up.

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