India’s wheat procurement plummets 40% due to delayed start in Madhya Pradesh
Wheat procurement in Punjab and Haryana is gaining pace after quality norm relaxations, boosting daily arrivals. Despite this pickup, overall procurement remains ~40% lower YoY, highlighting earlier delays due to weather-hit crops and quality concerns, though momentum is now improving across key producing states.
With relaxations in quality of the grain to be purchased from Punjab approved on Friday, the Centre’s wheat procurement is expected to get further momentum even as over all purchase so far was nearly 40 per cent lower. After similar relaxations approved earlier for Haryana, the purchase has already moved up in the state.
Total wheat procurement has reached 51.34 lakh tonnes (lt) until April 16 after the purchase season began from April 1, as against 83.57 lt in the year-ago period.
According to the latest data, the procurement in Punjab reached 5.94 lt as against 5.27 lt year-ago and in Haryana 37.74 lt from 29.89 lt. The daily procurement on April 16 also was higher at 3.48 lt as against 2.66 lt year-ago in Punjab and 8.91 lt as against 6.36 lt year-ago in Haryana.
Source : The Hindu Business line
