FCI to offer 25 LMT of wheat in the open market sale till March 25

The government will offload 25 LMT of wheat in the open market to bulk buyers like flour millers from its buffer stock with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) next till March 31 2025, said the food ministry in a statement.

The move is aimed at curbing any possibility of a rise in prices in the next few days. Last year, the FCI had commenced open market sale operations from June and had offloaded a record 10 MT for bulk purchasers.

The daily average retail price of has been hovering around Rs 32 per kg according to the consumer ministry's data for the last few days.


Flour millers have been asking the government to sell wheat to them in the open market for several months now.

The FCI had a stock of 10770857 metric tonne of wheat as on November 16.

India’s wheat procurement ended on June 30 with 26.6 million tonnes (mt) being procured by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) since April 1. Though the purchase is lower than 37.3 MT target fixed by the government, it could not reach 30 MT as private traders bought at higher than the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,275/quintal.

According to the agriculture ministry, wheat output in the 2023-24 crop year (July-June) is estimated at 112.92 MT.