Millers say they will not store paddy until FCI lifts rice stocks

Rice millers of Punjab today said they would not store paddy bought by the state-owned agencies for milling until the Food Corporation of India (FCI) lifts 7.5 lakh million tonnes (MT) of rice stock lying in the millers’ godown, a move that could hit the paddy procurement for central pool from the state.

“We will not be stocking crop bought by state procurement agencies for milling. Moreover, we will also not procure crop for ourselves... until the time FCI clears the rice stock (of 7.5 lakh tonne), which is placed with us for no faults of ours,” Punjab Rice Millers’ Association President Tarsem Saini said.

The decision of the rice millers not to lift crop is likely to adversely affect the paddy procurement process for kharif marketing season 2009-10, which begins today in the state. Punjab has targeted to lift 137 lakh tonnes (LT) of paddy for the central pool.

Rice Millers are an integral part of the paddy-lifting exercise as the entire crop bought by state-owned agencies is sent to the millers’ stocking facility for converting the crop into rice after milling.

Perturbed over the “apathetic” attitude of FCI, the millers lamented that FCI was not lifting 7.5 lakh tonne of rice stock from the last year, after declaring the crop not compliant with specified standards. Millers are asking the government to relax the standards for discoloring and damage of crop as particular variety of paddy could not yield rice to match FCI standards.

“We have asked the government to relax the norm to 5 per cent for discoloring and damage, from 3 to 3.5 per cent at present,” Saini said, adding that rice made from milling of PAU 201 variety of paddy does not match the FCI norms.