Industry Odisha Bureau, Oct 26: FCI will offer 1.01 lakh tonnes on October 28, down 5,000 tonnes. Millers in several states bid above ₹3,100 a quintal and want larger quantities.
The government has trimmed the wheat it will sell at its next weekly auction. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) will offer 1.01 lakh tonnes on October 28. That is 5,000 tonnes less than the previous tender, BusinessLine reported. The cut comes as flour millers compete hard for government grain. In several states, bids have topped ₹3,100 a quintal, or ₹31 a kilogram. The all-India average wholesale price is about ₹2,910 a quintal.
These sales run under the Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic), or OMSS(D). An allocation is the quantity offered, not necessarily what buyers take.
Cuts in nine states total about 11,900 tonnes against the October 21 round. They include Assam, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar and Kerala. Odisha’s reduction to 3,500 tonnes follows weak demand. Millers there bought only 3,050 tonnes of 6,000 tonnes offered last time. Elsewhere, the pattern is less clear. Assam buyers took 7,940 of 8,000 tonnes, yet now get 5,000 tonnes. Telangana millers bought 3,460 of 3,500 tonnes; their allocation falls to 1,000 tonnes. Karnataka bought 5,430 of 6,000 tonnes and now receives 5,000 tonnes. Some millers question these cuts, industry sources told BusinessLine. Previous offtake is only one factor in allocation decisions, however. Nine other states, including Punjab, gained 6,450 tonnes combined versus October 16 allocations.
Punjab’s allocation rises to 25,000 tonnes from 23,000 tonnes. In the last round, 204 buyers there bid between ₹2,861 and ₹3,065 a quintal. Around 8,970 tonnes sold at ₹3,000 or more to 72 buyers. Naresh Ghai, president of the Roller Flour Mills Association of Punjab, wants more. He has sought a weekly Punjab allocation of 40,000 tonnes. Ghai also opposes a 500-tonne weekly cap per depot. Supply should reflect mill density, he argued, citing Ludhiana. Its 18 mills hold about 20% of Punjab’s flour milling capacity. He said Punjab mandis are receiving no wheat and expects prices to stay firm.
Dharmendra Jain, president of the Roller Flour Millers’ Federation of India, sees tighter supplies. He suggested open-market wheat is scarcer than previously believed. The federation has urged larger weekly auction quantities.
Official stocks offer a different picture. FCI held 479.92 lakh tonnes of wheat on September 1, BusinessLine reported. That was the highest for the date in five years. It stood at 517.87 lakh tonnes on the same date in 2021. Government procurement reached 357.57 lakh tonnes in the 2026–27 marketing season. That compares with 299.75 lakh tonnes a year earlier. India’s 2025–26 harvest hit a record 120.66 million tonnes, up from 117.95 million. Production, procurement and stocks are distinct measures, however. Central stocks must also meet public distribution needs and buffer norms. Not all grain held is available for commercial auctions.
The coming weeks will test whether allocations match demand. Bidding levels and offtake in each state will be closely watched. So will mandi arrivals and any changes to depot caps. For now, millers are signalling demand that exceeds what is on offer.
