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Informist, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025

 

By Afra Abubacker

 

NEW DELHI – Amid piling rice stocks, Food Corp. of India has started offloading rice twice a week under the open market sales scheme, an FCI official said. Since January, FCI has been selling rice every Wednesday and Thursday under open market operations. Previously, FCI sold rice only on Wednesdays. 

 

Rice stocks with FCI were at 29.1 million tonnes as of Jan. 1, the highest in a decade for the month. Rice had piled up in government godowns as it banned exports in July 2023, which was later reversed in September 2024. "DFPD (Department of Food and Public Distribution) has directed to sell it (rice) twice until further orders," the official said.

 

However, the offtake of rice at auctions remains poor as new paddy crop arrivals are in full swing across the country. On Thursday, FCI offered 105,000 tonnes of rice but only sold 55.2% or 58,000 tonnes. Since August, FCI sold only 965,000 tonnes of rice, of the 2.89 million tonnes offered. "The government can direct to sell, but demand is only as per requirement," the official said. So far, the agency has conducted 28 auctions in 2024-25 (Apr-Mar). 

 

Sitting on decade-high rice stocks, the government has desperately opened all gates to offload rice from its godowns. On Jan 7, the government asked FCI to sell rice to ethanol distilleries at INR 2,800 per 100 kg till Mar. 31. However, distillers say the rice off-take will be poor unless the government cuts rice prices to INR 2,100-2,200 per 100 kg from INR 2,800. 

 

FCI's average selling price of rice on Thursday was INR 2,868.4 per 100 kg, against INR 2,862.4 on Wednesday, FCI data showed. On Wednesday, the all-India average wholesale price of rice was INR 3,822.6 per 100 kg, up 0.7% on year but 1.2% down on month, according to the Department of Consumer Affairs data. End

 

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

 

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