Private wheat procurement declines at 11.7 lakh
Private traderes and big corporate houses such as ITC and Cargill have procured only 11.7 lakh tons of wheat.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: Private traderes and big corporate houses such as ITC and Cargill have procured only 11.7 lakh tons of wheat as compared to their purchases of over 20 lakh tons last year.
Government till June had procured 225 lakh tons from the farmers.
"Private procurement has reached 11.7 lakh tons till June as per the declarations filed by the private trade," an industry source said. Last year, private sector had purchased over 20 lakh tons of wheat.
ITC has mopped up 5.4 lakh tons till June compared to 8.2 lakh tons last year while Cargill has purchased 1.2 lakh tons against 3.8 lakh tons, he said, adding other players have purchased less than one lakh tonne.
ITC is selling wheat flour (atta) under 'Aashirwad' brand while Cargill sell under 'Nature Fresh' brand. Both the players have considerable market share in the branded flour segment at national level.
To keep a track on private procurement, the Centre has made it mandatory for the private trade to file declaration if they purchase more than 10,000 tons of wheat from the market.
The provision of mandatory declaration was introduced last year when the government failed to meet its procurement target of 150 lakh tons wheat in 2006.
The government was able to procure only 92 and 111 lakh tons of wheat in 2006 and 2007 respectively because of aggressive buying by the corporates and private traders.
However, this year the Centre has been able to achieve a record procurement of 225 lakh tons on the back of higher minimum support price of Rs 1,000 per quintal and record wheat production of 78.4 million tons.
Wheat prices are generally stable throughout the country barring few places where government is planning to release stocks in the open market.
Download
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
Download
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
ADVERTISEMENT
