May 18, 2009
India state wheat purchases cross 2007-08 levels
India's state-run Food Corporation of India's wheat purchases between April 1 and May 17 reached 22.69 million tonnes, surpassing the year-ago figure, a government official said Monday.
State-run companies, including Food Corp., bought a total of 22.60 million tonnes of wheat in 2007-08.
Food Corp's wheat purchases from farmers for government buffer stocks rose 13.6 percent on year, said the official, declining to be named.
About 95 percent of the wheat sold in the local markets in the period was bought by Food Corp.
The federal government increased the state-set purchase price of wheat to Rs10,800/tonne (US$225) this year from INR10,000/tonne (US$208.3), which has encouraged farmers to sell more grain to the government.
