Food Corporation of India?s (FCI) experiment of using e-auction platform to sell its excess stock of wheat to bulk consumers under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) has evoked mixed response with buyers purchasing around 1,200 tonne of wheat out of the total allocation of around 10,000 tonne on the first day of auction launched on Tuesday.
Analysts said volume of wheat sold through e-auction was less in the first day because of low retail price of wheat.
For the first time, FCI had signed a memorandum of understanding with Financial Technologies Ltd-promoted National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) for carrying out e-auction of OMSS wheat in Delhi, to replace the regular tendering process.
The electronic platform besides expediting the process of selling would also cut down FCI?s cost of tendering.
According to Anjani Sinha, managing director and CEO of NSEL, after the delivery and lifting of auctioned wheat, FCI would notify the next auction date, which is slated to be on March 22-23.
Meanwhile, the government has already indicated that wheat sale under open market sale scheme would be wounded up by March 31 in key wheat growing states such as Haryana, Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh, ahead of the new procurement season that starts on April 1. With expectation of bumper wheat crop estimated to be around 82 million tonne, government is trying with the idea to sell its excess wheat through OMSS. India ?s wheat stocks as at March 1 were estimated to be 18.4 million tonne.