October 22, 2007

India allocates 300,000 tonnes more wheat for subsidised sale

India's federal government Friday (October 19) allocated an additional 300,000 metric tonnes of wheat to provinces for local subsidized sale in order to keep a check on prices during the ongoing religious festival season.

The allocation is meant for sale by end-December, a government statement said.

The government sells on average between 900,000 tonnes and 1 million tonnes of wheat a month at subsidized rates to consumers.

As of October 1, India's wheat stocks totalled 10.12 million tonnes, up 58 percent from the year-earlier period. But the stocks are lower than the government-set October 1 minimum buffer requirement of 11 million tonnes.

India's wheat stocks are forecast to be over 6 million tonnes on April 1, 2008, at the time of the beginning of the new harvest season, around 50 percent higher than the minimum buffer requirement of 4 million tonnes for that day.