Nafed to sell essential items at low prices in more states
After its successful launch in Delhi, Nafed, the country's biggest farmers' cooperative, will extend its sale of essential commodities at low prices under the 'Farm Gate to Home Gate' campaign to more states to help people reeling under spiralling prices.
National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed), which first intervened in the markets of Delhi and Kochi in Kerala earlier this month, will now take the scheme to Maharashtra, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, the agency said in a statement today.
The agency will also procure rice for Bihar and Orissa for low-priced sale, it said, adding, the scheme is expected to be introduce in Gujarat next week.
"We are trying to co-branch with cooperative and public sector retail chains in states to extend the scheme of selling essential commodities at much lower prices than in the market," said Nafed Managing Director C V Ananda Bose.
The Railways decided to allot rakes on a priority basis for quickly moving the commodities to the states. The decision will make it easier for Nafed to transport the commodities to faraway states as compared to trucks, which would have taken several days.
Under the ‘Farm Gate to Home Gate’ scheme, Nafed procures essential commodities from farmers directly and sell them to people, eliminating intermediaries who make the process expensive, it said.
Enthused by the response of consumers in Delhi, Nafed chalked out plans to replicate this experiment in a big way, giving more value to consumer's and more quantities in the shopping bags, the Nafed boss said.
Madhya Pradesh has asked the cooperative to tie up with its distribution chains to sell essential commodities at affordable prices. West Bengal has already placed orders for edible oil and pulses for distribution in the state, Bose added.
To meet these reqirements, Nafed has placed orders for the edible oil from Malaysia and pulses from Myanmar, and is awaiting their arrival.
The agency has identified 20 kitchen basics like pulses, edible oil, rice, wheat or atta, sugar and kitchen masala for the sale. Loose sugar price will be priced at Rs 39 and packaged sugar at Rs 41. Packaged sugar now sells up to Rs 60 in the market. It sells onions in Delhi at Rs 16 compared to Rs 24-27 in the open market.
When tor dal was selling above Rs 90 per kilo in Delhi, the cooperative introduced yellow pea dal, which was sold through Kendriya Bhandars and Mother Diary outlets three weeks ago. After initially pricing yellow pea dal at Rs 26, Nafed brought down the price to Rs 16, he said.