Govt to resume e-auction of wheat
FCI may resume wheat e-auctions after weak offtake, with only 0.53 MT sold against a 3 MT target. Ample private stocks and strong harvest prospects depressed demand. Traders fear fresh sales could push prices lower. Wheat stocks are 27.65 MT, while the government also plans record rice offloading of 8 MT this fiscal.
With sluggish offtake due adequate private stock and prospects of a robust harvest, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is likely to re-launch e-auction of open market sale of wheat after discontinuing the weekly sales since early December.
Sources told FE that only 0.53 million tonne (MT) of wheat was offloaded in the market from the FCI’s stocks sold during November and early December under the open market sale scheme (OMSS) against the target of 3 MT for FY26.
Due to discouraging response from the flour millers, OMSS sales were discontinued. In FY25, the corporation had sold 3 MT of wheat in the markets from its surplus stock. Officials said that the corporation may sell over 2 MT of wheat in FY26.
However, trade sources said that selling surplus wheat in the market by FCI would further depress prices, which may discourage private purchase of grain from the new marketing season (2026-27) starting from April 1.
The crop harvest prospects for 2025-26 looks promising with conducive weather conditon and robust sowing.
“There is plenty of wheat stock with the private entities, the government selling below the market prices would further depress prices and hit stockists,” sources said.
The price of wheat under OMSS for the bulk buyers like millers, is fixed at Rs 2550/quintal for 2025-26, excluding freight. While prevailing marketing prices are in the range of Rs 2800/- Rs 2850/quintal.
Inflation
Inflation in wheat November, 2025 eased further to 0.33% against a price rise of 2.04% in October.
Currently FCI has 27.65 MT of wheat currently against a buffer of 13.8 MT for January 1 while procurement of wheat for 2026-27 season would commence from April 1.
Meanwhile, with additional grain allocated for the ethanol blending programme in the 2025-26 season (November-October), the government is aiming to offload a record 8 million tonne (MT) of rice in the market in the current fiscal from its surplus stock.
The FCI has offloaded 7.7 MT of rice through open market sale, liberal allocations to states, and for ethanol manufacturing and Bharat rice initiative so far in the current fiscal.
Govt to sell record 8 MT of rice
In FY25, the FCI had allocated 4.63 MT of rice to the state’s social welfare scheme (1.12 MT), open market sale scheme (1.96 MT) and ethanol manufacturing (2.3 MT).
However, the government’s central-pool rice stocks continue to surge despite record sales of surplus grain in the market. The current effective central pool stock is over 31 MT, over 3 times the buffer of 7.61 MT for January 1.
Officials said the current stock with FCI includes about 31.5 MT of grain yet to be received from millers.
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Source : Financial Express
