Chandigarh, April 2
The arrival of fresh wheat has begun in various grain markets in Punjab. It is fetching a price ranging from Rs 911 to Rs 925 per quintal, about Rs 75 higher than the minimum support price fixed by the union government.

Private companies are buying almost the entire stocks arriving in the market at present. The MSP of wheat is Rs 850 per quintal.

However, old wheat stocks, which were also being unloaded by farmers in the market, are selling at a higher price. About 60 quintals of old wheat fetched a price ranging between Rs 935 and 955 at Khanna, one of the biggest grain markets of Asia. At Khanna, fresh wheat was sold at Rs 925 per quintal.

Major Singh Pallah, president of the arhtiya association, Khanna, told The Tribune that in a week’s time the arrivals would pick up. As the winter persisted a bit longer this year, the maturing of wheat, especially in central Punjab, has been delayed a bit.

The maximum arrival of wheat today was in the Rajpura market. About 1,500 quintals of wheat arrived in that market and the entire stocks were lifted by private agencies, it is learnt. Rupinder Singh, a commission agent at Rajpura, said the moisture content was a bit more in the fresh wheat. It was being dried with the help of machines, he added.

A farmer, Tara Singh of Maudali, who had brought wheat to the Rajpura market, said he was not happy with the yield of wheat. He was expecting a yield of 18 quintals per acre. However, it would be hardly 12 quintals per acre from the 3.5 acres harvested so far, he said.“ In our area, the wheat crop was hit by a hailstorm recently”, he added. “ It appears that storm hit the yield”, he said.

It appears that the union government will face certain problems in buying wheat for the central pool. The target is to buy 150 lakh tonnes for the central pool. However, as private buyers have entered the market aggressively right from the word go, they will give a tough time to the government agencies in procuring wheat. Punjab and Haryana are wheat-surplus states.

There is an estimate that about 90 lakh tonnes of wheat will arrive in the grain markets of Punjab for procurement by the government as well as private agencies. In the case of Haryana, the estimate is 45 lakh tonnes. Already, the union government has placed an order to import more wheat. Last year, it had to import about 55 lakh tonnes from Australia and other countries. In the international market, the wheat stock situation is tight at the moment. Because of drought in Australia, which is a highly wheat surplus country, the production of wheat was hit hard during the last season.

Meanwhile, BKU leaders, including Ajmer Singh Lakhowal and Balbir Singh Rajewal, have been urging farmers not to bring wheat to the market till the union government increased the wheat price by Rs 200 per quintal.

In fact, Rajewal said his organisation had launched a campaign in the state to urge farmers to withhold their wheat stocks for a few weeks. He said wheat-producing countries such as Australia, China, Spain and Argentina were facing a crisis on the production front. “ There is a major fall in wheat production in almost all countries in the world”, he added. “ Because of this factor, the price of wheat in the open market in our country will certainly shoot up in the days to come and farmers should take full advantage of such a situation”, he said.