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Punjab’s record wheat contribution to Centre

Chandigarh: Punjab’s wheat contribution to the Central pool this time has been the highest ever, with the total lifting for the Centre touching 105.84 lakh Metric Tonne (MT) mark during the ongoing marketing season. “The total lifting in Punjab meant for central pool has reached 105.84 lakh MT mark,” FCI General Manager Dev Raj said.

The State has achieved this feat after recording the highest ever arrival of crop a couple of days ago, which has now reached 108.38 lakh MT.

Out of the total arrival of 108.38 lakh MT of wheat in Punjab, the FCI lifted 16.95 lakh MT while State agencies bought 88.89 lakh MT for the Central pool. Rest of the crop is bought by agencies for the State pool at 2.34 lakh MT and traders at 20,012 MT, as per the available data. With daily arrival of the crop still maintaining at 25,000 to 35,000 MT, FCI officials expect that the total wheat lifting for the Central pool is likely to reach 107 lakh MT mark in next one week which would also be a new record.

The districts which are still witnessing crop arrival are Ferozepur, Muktsar, Bathinda, Mansa, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, Fathegarh Sahib. However, there is no crop arrival in some districts such as Nawanshahar, Mohali and Ropar, an official said.

The main reason behind record lifting by the State agencies and FCI has been the negligible role played by the private traders and companies in procuring wheat from the State in view of the high taxes and lower prices of crop in other States.

Majority of State traders, including flour mill owners, refrained from making heavy buying from State mandis as they bought crop from other States such as Bangalore, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, where wheat was available at much cheaper rates, wheat experts pointed out.

Last season, the total purchase by private traders was 3.36 lakh MT in Punjab which has now shrunk to just 20,012 MT so far –PTI

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