Poor Sales of Government Wheat

21-Feb-2026 11:54 AM

The Union Food Ministry authorized its subordinate agency, the Food Corporation of India (FCI), to sell 3 million tons of wheat under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) during the current financial year, and the corporation began conducting e-auctions for this purpose from November 12, 2025. However, for some unspecified reasons, millers and processors did not show the expected interest in purchasing this wheat. Consequently, in a total of eight auctions held between November 12, 2025, and February 18, 2026, approximately 1.131 million tons of wheat were offered for sale, but only 6.75 million tons were bid for, and only 6.22 million tons were actually sold.

Thus, only 55 percent of the total wheat offered was sold, leaving the remaining 45 percent of the stock unsold. It is understood that the auction process will continue until mid-March, but given the extremely weak response from millers and processors,

it appears that total government wheat sales for the entire current financial year may fall below 900,000 tons. In the last financial year (2024-25), the Food Corporation of India (FCI) managed to sell approximately 3 million tons of wheat, while previously this figure had once reached close to 10 million tons.

Although the government withdrew the wheat storage limit order to increase FCI wheat sales and boost weak market prices, it has yielded no significant results. Similarly, the government has approved the commercial export of 2.5 million tons of wheat and 1 million tons of wheat products (flour, maida, semolina, etc.), but the potential impact of this on the domestic market will be known later.

Meanwhile, there are calls to completely deregulate wheat products by removing them from the list of banned or quota systems, which the government should seriously consider. The next wheat production is expected to be bumper and the industry is keeping an eye on the government policy.