How wheat prices moved after FCI began liquidating stocks via open tenders

Flour millers are of the view that consumer price inflation for wheat flour (atta) will reduce more sharply in the next month and a half, as prices have already started softening at the mill gate.

So far, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has liquidated about 3.38 million tonnes of wheat from its inventories in six tenders, to cool down prices. In 2019-20, the last normal year before the pandemic, FCI had sold 3.63 million tonnes of wheat from its holdings. In 2021-22, it had liquidated 7.03 million tonnes through an open market sale scheme.

This year, the sixth sale tender could be the last as the new crops from FY24 season will start arriving in the market in full blast in the next 7-10 days in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, followed by Punjab, Haryana and western UP.