FCI sells 24% of 267,000 tn rice offered in open mkt scheme last week
This story was originally published at 18:16 IST on 16 April 2025
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By Afra Abubacker
NEW DELHI – The Food Corp. of India sold 64,000 tonnes, or 24%, of the 267,000 tonnes rice offered under the open market sales scheme last week, an FCI official said. Since August, Food Corp. of India has sold only 2.08 million tonnes, or 35.3%, of the 5.91 million tonnes rice offered under the scheme, he added.
To increase rice offtake, FCI sells rice twice a week--Wednesday and Thursday--under the open market sales scheme. However, sales were slow amid surplus availability of paddy across the country. FCI will conduct weekly rice auctions till the first week of June, an official said.
The average selling price fell to INR 2,844.3 per 100 kg on Thursday from INR 3,167.3 per 100 kg at the start of the auctions in August, data showed. According to traders, rice offtake from the corporation will improve if the government reduces the reserve price to INR 2,500 per 100 kg from INR 2,800 in the open market sales scheme.
As of Apr. 1, rice stocks in the central pool were up 26.5% on year at 38.2 million tonnes. The stocks were up nearly 4% from 36.8 million tonnes a month ago. The current rice stocks are far above the buffer norm of about 13.6 million tonnes--operational stock of 11.58 million tonnes and strategic reserve of 2.00 million tonnes.
The US Department of Agriculture has raised its estimate for India's production by 2 million tonnes to a record 147 million tonnes on the back of the Indian government's second advanced estimates for kharif and rabi crops, and the expectation that the summer crop output will be similar to recent years.
"This is the ninth consecutive year of higher rice production for India and is the first time India surpassed China in rice production, making India the leading global rice producer for 2024-25," the report said.
To encourage offtake, the government has cut the reserve price of rice for sale to ethanol distilleries to INR 2,250 per 100 kg from INR 2,800 per 100 kg. Rice is among the many food commodities used to produce ethanol.
The government has been encouraging the sale of rice to clear stocks and make room for rabi procurement. The Centre has set wheat and rice procurement targets for 2025-26 (Apr-Mar) at 31 million tonnes and 7.0 million tonnes, respectively. End
Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj
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