Wheat procurement picks up, prices too

For once, all the surprises in procurement season in Punjab have been pleasant ones.

For once, all the surprises in procurement season in Punjab have been pleasant ones. Between April 1 and 5, private mill-owners, exporters and large companies picked up wheat at Rs 710/quintal. Though prices have since stabilised at Rs 670/quintal, it is still higher than the average prices last year, which ranged between Rs 640 and Rs 675.

After a slow start on April 1, the arrival of wheat at the mandis, too, is picking up; it is expected to peak by the middle of next week. Around 14,00,000 metric tonnes of wheat have arrived in the 1,574 procurement centres across Punjab; 11 per cent of it has been picked up by private players.

Though less than half of the quantity that had come to the mandis by this date last year8212;the quantum then was around 30,00,000 metric tonnes8212;no one is losing sleep over figures. According to officials, the shortfall is the highest in mandis in the districts of Jalandhar, Patiala, Sangrur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana, Ropar, Moga and Nawanshahr.

8216;8216;But we have to remember that harvests have been delayed this year because of bad weather,8217;8217; said Balwinder Singh, director, agriculture. 8216;8216;I am sure the situation will normalise by April 20.8217;8217;

The farmers, meanwhile, have no complaints with the informal carving up of procurement: While the private buyers are thronging the larger mandis, the state government is zeroing in on the smaller markets.

8216;8216;Though private traders are giving a good price, many farmers cannot incur the cost of transporting their wheat 20-30 km to the mandis they frequent. But even for them, selling at the smaller mandis is proving beneficial,8217;8217; said Yadvinder Singh, a farmer-cum- commission agent.

Another significant factor in the current procurement season is the presence of big players like Cargill India, which has its own warehouses. According to a state government official, 8216;8216;These private companies know that the government won8217;t have much to sell to them later in the year. Thus it8217;s intelligent of them to pick up wheat now, store it and release it when the prices shoot up.

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8216;8216;Our national grain stocks are low and we are even importing wheat. I8217;m sure the private companies kept this in mind before they ventured into the mandis. For every Rs 670 they spend, they will earn Rs 800 or more.8217;8217;

Volcker-tainted exporter under fire

NEW DELHI: The Central plan to import 500,000 tonnes of wheat has come under fire from farmer leaders, who questioned the contract signed with the Australia-based Volcker-report tainted exporter, AWB Ltd.

Farmer leaders pointed out that AWB Ltd is accused of paying 290 million in kickbacks to the Saddam regime in Iraq for the supply of wheat. The kickback was allegedly routed through a Jordanian trucking company, Alia, in which the Iraqi government has 49 per cent stake. Australia is currently probing the charges.

Sensing the possibility of a scam, farmer leaders demanded transparency in the deal. They argued that Australia had sold wheat in the global market at 131/tonne on FoB basis, while it was selling wheat to India at 178.75/tonne on CIF basis, against relaxed quarantine norms. The difference of FoB and CIF cost should not be more than 20/tonne, they said.

Ashok B Sharma