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Informist, Monday, Jun. 2, 2025

 

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--Govt source: Likely to procure only 350,000 tonnes chana in year to March
--CONTEXT: Govt has sanctioned 2.8 mln tn chana procurement in year to March 
--Govt source: Chana procurement as of Monday 297,000 tonnes 
--CONTEXT: Procurement of chana was to end by May 31 
--Govt source: Will extend chana procurement to end of June

 

By Pallavi Singhal 

 

NEW DELHI – The government is likely to close its chana procurement operations at 350,000 tonnes, 12.5% of the total sanctioned quantity of 2.8 million tonnes for the rabi marketing season 2025-26 (Apr-Mar), according to a senior government official. Monday, chana procurement stood at 297,000 tonnes, with the operations likely to continue till the end of June.

 

"The highest amount has been procured from Gujarat, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan," the official said. "The production from these states has also been exhausted with private trade buying actively. In all other states, prices have been significantly higher than the minimum support prices. We are likely to be able to procure only 350,000 tonnes. We will keep trying to buy till the end of June."

 

The government's chana procurement has been slow as prices of the kitchen staple have remained significantly above the minimum support price of INR 5,650 per 100 kg. Though prices of the legume fell slightly after the government's decision to extend duty-free yellow pea imports till Mar. 31, they are still above the minimum support price. Yellow pea is a substitute for chana.

 

Monday, chana prices in the key spot market at Indore, Madhya Pradesh, stood at INR 5,900–INR 5,925 per 100 kg. Chana in Akola, Maharashtra, was priced at INR 5,775-INR 5,800 per 100 kg.

 

The consumer affairs ministry has been keen to rebuild its buffer of the key legume. The stock was depleted after the government failed to procure any of last season's output owing to lower production and high demand. "Seeing the current price trend, our department internally revised the procurement aim down to 1.00-1.50 million tonne. But even that looks like a distant dream right now," a government official had told Informist May 15.

 

The high procurement target of 2.80 million tonnes was sanctioned on account of a robust crop outlook. The agriculture ministry's second advance estimate has pegged the country's chana production at 11.50 million tonnes in the crop year 2024-25 (Jul-Jun), up from 11.03 million tonnes in 2023-24. The market, however, believes this is an overestimate. According to Satish Upadhyay, secretary of the India Pulses and Grains Association, the chana crop is "short" in many states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh.

 

The government has, so far, bought about 150,000 tonnes of chana from Gujarat, 98,000 tonnes from Madhya Pradesh, and 42,000 tonnes from Rajasthan. Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh have also contributed a few thousand tonnes each, data shared by the official showed.  End

 

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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