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| Punjab mills ready to buy wheat from govt via tender |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Oct 07, 2009, 14:16 IST |
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Punjab millers have expressed their readiness to buy the foodgrain under the current tender system to immediately get the raw material to run their mills, a day after the flour owners' federation's call to shift to 'first come, first serve' basis.
"We are ready to buy the wheat through tender and the government should immediately offload the foodgrain in the open market," Punjab Roller Flour Millers President Naresh Ghai today said.
At its annual general meeting on October 6, Roller Flour Millers Federation of India asked the Centre to sell wheat on 'first come, first serve' basis and not through tender.
Ghai said that Food Corporation of India has procured 107 lakh tonnes from Punjab, which produced 145 lakh tonnes crop in 2009, leading to inadequate availability.
According to government data, wheat production was 157.33 lakh tonnes as against the state's demand size of about 50 lakh tonnes for feed, seeds and food.
He said there are about 70 mills in Punjab with a combined processing capacity of 4,000 tonnes of wheat a day to produce 'atta' (wheat flour), 'maida' (finely milled wheat flour) and 'sooji' (granulated but not pulverised wheat).
Pointing that mills in Punjab are buying wheat from other states due to inadequate availability and higher cost in their home state, Ghai said they need at least 7,00,000 tonnes of wheat till March next as new crop will come only in April.
"Even if we run our mills at half the capacity, we need about 50,000 tonnes per month," he said.
However, market experts said that private traders and millers did not participate during the procurement as wheat price was higher in Punjab than other states due to taxes.
"Millers knew that they would get the government wheat at lower price since the Centre sells at the minimum support price (MSP) plus freight," an analyst with a commodity brokerage firm said.
Minister of State for Food and Agriculture yesterday said that the Centre planned to sell 5,00,000 tonnes of wheat to bulk consumers like flour millers and another 10,00,000 tonnes to states under the open market sale scheme (OMSS), which is designed to check price rise.
Asked about the timing of the sale of OMSS wheat Thomas said, "We are still discussing the mechanism of the wheat sale under the scheme as the flour millers have requested to change the tendering system."
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