Lower price of wheat cheers roller flour mills

The roller flour mills in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh got a new beginning in the new year with the downward revision of reserve price of wheat by the Centre for bulk buyers.

The price cut of Rs 200 per quintal under the open market sales scheme(OMSS) from Rs 1,440 per quintal to Rs 1,240 per quintal has helped over 80 roller flour mills in the region to streamline their operations.

Under OMSS the states are given a specific quantity of wheat. Punjab got 140,000 tonnes and Chandigarh got about 14,000 tonnes.

The millers are dependent on the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for procuring wheat due to high price differential in the cost of wheat in the open market (arhtiyas), who according to President of Chandigarh Roller Flour Mills Association Vinod Mittal sold at Rs 1,380 per quintal.

“Despite running my unit at 40 per cent capacity, which most of the roller flour mills have been operating at, we are at an advantage by not buying from any other source than FCI.”

The roller flour mills and big chakkis get an allocation of about 1,000 tonne per month at the price quoted in the tender. The price at which the millers buy wheat under OMSS is slightly higher than the reserved price but substantially lower than the price offered by private players. Over 80 roller flour mills are running in Punjab and Chandigarh.

Most of the units make resultant atta from which maida is extracted except for the quantity meant for public distribution system (PDS) where whole wheat atta is provided.

Millers said they had been actively communicating to the authorities to make more wheat available under OMSS as the objective for paying subsidy on wheat fructified only if the end users got atta at an affordable price.