Prices in major wheat-growing states, except Maharashtra, dropped by Rs 59-344/quintal at the e-auction conducted by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) on November 4. Experts attribute the fall in prices to widening the participation of processors in the auction by doubling the quantity in the auction.
According to data sourced from FCI’s auction portal, out of 1.91 lakh tonnes (lt) on offer in the States (except Gujarat), 1.78 lt were intended to be lifted by the successful participants. The government had offered 1.99 lt of wheat at the auction (against 1.01 lt the previous week), including 8,000 tonnes in Gujarat. However, details of the auction in Gujarat were not available till evening.
The offtake marginally dropped to some 93 per cent this week from 98 per cent in the previous round, as States like Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh received lower bids than the offered quantity.
Prices may stabilise
“There is a huge increase in participation of processors this week, which indicates that the previous policy could not capture the demand correctly and limited participation with a lower quantity on offer. This could have led to millers offering very high prices. Hopefully prices will stabilise, but the government also needs to consider raising the cap of individual participants so that millers get a reasonable quantity from FCI for their plants,” said a processor, who participated in the bid and got 300 tonnes, the maximum any processor can by in a week.
The average rate of wheat sold in Punjab this week was at Rs 2,648/quintal, down from Rs 2,992/quintal on October 28. Similarly, Madhya Pradesh witnessed Rs 298/quintal fall in a week, Haryana Rs 258/quintal, West Bengal Rs 232/quintal, Karnataka Rs 182/quintal, Delhi Rs 168/quintal, Bihar Rs 130/quintal, Rajasthan Rs 115/quintal and Uttar Pradesh Rs 59/quintal. But Maharashtra has witnessed average selling price rising to Rs 2994/quintal from Rs 2887/quintal, up by Rs 107/quintal.
Published on November 5, 2026
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