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Informist, Friday, May 9, 2025

 

By Afra Abubacker

 

NEW DELHI – The Food Corp. of India Thursday sold 21,000 tonnes rice, or 18% of the 116,000 tonnes rice offered under the open market sales scheme, according to data from the corporation. Since August, Food Corp. of India has sold only 2.3 million tonnes, or 33%, of the nearly 7 million tonnes rice offered under the scheme, data showed. 

 

To increase offtake, FCI sells rice twice a week--Wednesday and Thursday--under the open market sales scheme. However, sales are slow amid surplus availability of paddy across the country. Amid tepid demand, FCI's rice sales prices are subdued. 

 

The average selling price fell to INR 2,833.9 per 100 kg on Thursday from INR 3,167.3 per 100 kg at the start of the auctions in August, but was slightly up from INR 2,822.2 per 100 kg on Wednesday, 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, FCI had 38.2 million tonnes of rice, up 26.5% on year and far above the buffer norm of about 13.6 million tonnes – operational stock of 11.58 million tonnes and a strategic reserve of 2.00 million tonnes.

 

To clear its swelling stocks, the government has allocated an additional 2.8 million tonnes of rice as feedstock for making ethanol, taking the total for 2024-25 to 5.2 million tonnes. Distilleries can now lift rice from government godowns till the end of the ethanol supply year on Oct. 31, according to an FCI official. Previously, the deadline was Jun. 30.

 

To clear stocks, the government has kept the reserve price of rice for ethanol production unchanged at a subsidised rate of INR 2,250 per 100 kg. This price is way below the economic cost of INR 3,975 per 100 kg. However, offtake remains poor. So far, distillers have lifted about 950,000 tonnes of rice, the official said. This is just 18.3% of the entire allocation.

 

Distillers supply ethanol to oil marketing companies for their blending requirements. During Nov-Mar, oil companies achieved 18.4% blending with petrol. Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd., on behalf of state oil companies, has given distillers allotment letters for 2.65 million tonnes of rice so far, the official said.   End

 

Edited by Deepshikha Bharwdaj

 

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