Haryana wheat agencies plan to raise storage space

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Chandigarh: With the wheat arrivals due to begin from April 1, procurement agencies in Haryana are busy handling the problem of shortage of storage space. As a major portion of the stock procured in 2008 is still lying with the agencies, they are enhancing their storage capacities.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) alongwith five state procurement agencies like Food and Supplies department, Haryana State Co-operative Supply & Marketing Federation (Hafed), Haryana Warehousing Corporation (HWC), Haryana Agro Industries Corporation (HAIC) and Haryana Federation of Consumers Cooperative Wholesale Stores Limited (Confed) had procured around 52.3 lakh metric tonne (mt) of wheat last year.

Out of this around 24 lakh mt is expected to be lying in the godowns while the new wheat arrivals start. The state agencies have to manage around 16 lakh mt and FCI—8 lakh mt of old wheat stocks.

Vijay Parashar, deputy general manager, FCI regional office Haryana told FE that the Corporation is gearing up to handle the fresh arrivals. “This year, we expect about 55 lakh mt of wheat arrivals in mandis out of which we will procure 12-13% or about 7 lakh mt. The movement of old stock is slow as the consuming states’ storage capacity is fully utilised at present. But we have offered movement of stock on priority basis to those agencies who have stocks lying in open or at an unsafe place,” said Vijay.

FCI has a storage capacity of 23.17 lakh mt in Haryana whereas the agencies together own about 22 lakh mt of storage capacity (excluding temporary arrangements). Vijay further added, “We had advertised for creating 70,000 mt of additional capacity. The bids have been received and things will be finalised by 20th March. Moreover, food and supplies department has floated tenders to create 7.5 lakh mt of additional storage capacity. We will hold a meeting with the state agencies to find out the storage gap and draw out a strategy to tackle the same.”