The Food Corporation of India (FCI) on Wednesday (15 February) sold 3.85 lakh metric tonne (LMT) wheat for Rs 901 crore in the open market during the second e-auction of the wheat stock.

Over 1,000 bidders participated in the e-auction, in which FCI offered 15.25 lakh metric tonne wheat.

In a statement on Thursday (16 February), the Food Ministry said that in the second e-auction, quantities ranging from of 100 to 499 metric tonne had maximum demand followed by quantities of 500-1000 MT and 50-100 MT indicating that small and medium flour millers and traders actively participated in the auction.

Only five bids were received for the maximum quantity of 3000 MT at one go, the ministry said.

The FCI realised a weighted average rate of Rs 2338.01 per quintal in the auction.

FCI is offering wheat for e-auction to address the rising price of wheat and flour in the country as per the recommendation of Home Minister Amit Shah led Group of Ministers to offload 30 LMT of the foodgrain.

The sale of wheat through e-auction will continue throughout the country on every Wednesday till second week of March 2023, the ministry said.

The Centre has also allocated 3 LMT wheat to govt PSUs, cooperatives and federations like Kendriya Bhandar, NCCF and NAFED for sale without e-auction at the concessional rate of Rs 2,350/quintal for converting wheat to Atta and offer it to public at an maximum retail price of Rs 29.50 per Kg.

NCCF has been allowed to lift 68,000 MT of wheat stock under the above scheme across eight states.

Allotment of 1 LMT wheat each is made to NAFED and 1.32 LMT to Kendriya Bhandar under this scheme to bring down the price of flour across the country.

The ministry said that offloading of more than 25 LMT wheat stock out of 30 LMT earmarked for sale under Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic) OMSSD (D) in the market within a span of two months through multiple channels will have impact to contain the inflationary price trend of Wheat and flour and also stabilised price rise in food economy bringing relief to the common man sustaining the objective of scheme.