Bathinda: With over 97.5% of the state's estimated wheat procurement having arrived at mandis by Saturday evening, Punjab's wheat procurement season is drawing to a close. On Saturday alone, 1.95 lakh tonnes of wheat arrived in grain markets, taking the total arrivals to 1.19 crore tonnes against the estimated target of 1.22 crore tonnes.
Procurement Update
By May 2 evening, procurement stood at 1.18 crore tonnes, including 2.11 lakh tonnes purchased during the day—higher than the day's arrivals—leaving unsold stocks in mandis at just 1.22 lakh tonnes. Overall purchases accounted for 98.8% of the arrivals.
Trader Participation Remains Low
However, traders' participation continued to remain muted. Traders purchased only 1.22 lakh tonnes, accounting for a mere 1.03% of total procurement, compared with 7.92% of arrivals purchased by traders during the corresponding period last year (till April 28). The Food Corporation of India procured 2.28 lakh tonnes, constituting 1.93% of the total purchases.
Lifting of Wheat Lags
Despite robust procurement, lifting of wheat from mandis lagged behind. Only about 53% of the procured grain—62.46 lakh tonnes—had been lifted by Saturday evening. On Saturday, 4.49 lakh tonnes of procured wheat were lifted from grain markets.
District-wise Arrivals
Bathinda recorded the highest arrivals at 9.17 lakh tonnes, followed by Sangrur (9.01 lakh tonnes), Patiala (8.63 lakh tonnes) and Muktsar (8.07 lakh tonnes) as of May 2 evening.
