Wheat stock in the country has fallen to its lowest in six years and the prices have also jumped to a record high on rising demand and falling inventories, according to a Reuters report quoting government data. The total wheat reserves in state stores stood at 19 million tonnes at the start of this month, lower than 37.85 million tonnes on December 1, 2021.
The report added that the current stocks for December are at the lowest since 2016, when inventories had fallen to 16.5 million tonnes because of back-to-back droughts in 2014 and 2015 that curtailed wheat output.
“The new crop supplies would start only after four months. The government’s task of calm prices is becoming more difficult every month. It can’t release more than 2 million tonnes in a month to bring down prices. The market needs much more as farmers supplies have nearly stopped and traders are slowly releasing stocks,” the report quoted a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house, as saying.
Last week, in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said, “The prices of agricultural produce including wheat are determined by the demand and supply conditions in the market, international prices etc.” As per data, all-India monthly average wholesale prices of wheat stood at Rs 2,228 per quintal in January, Rs 2,230 in February, Rs 2,339 in March, Rs 2,384 in April, Rs 2,352 in May, Rs 2,316 in June, Rs 2,409 in July, Rs 2,486 in August, Rs 2,516 in September, Rs 2,571 in October and Rs 2,721 per quintal in November. Prices of October and November are provisional.
The Centre had imposed a ban on wheat exports in May to control prices.
However, wheat acreage has increased by 25 per cent so far in the onging rabi season at 255.76 lakh hectares mainly on higher sowing area in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, the government data showed. The area under coverage for wheat, which is the major crop in rabi (winter-sown) season, stood at 203.91 lakh hectares in the same period last year.
Sowing of rabi crops starts from October.
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