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By ending the role of middlemen, 5,000 wheat purchase centres spread across Uttar Pradesh began functioning on April 1. CM Aditya Nath revised the target of wheat purchase and government agencies have been asked to buy 70 lakh tonne of the total target of 80 lakh tonnes in 2017. The previous Samajwadi Party government had purchased wheat through middlemen which will not be allowed at any cost by the present Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state, said CM.

International Grains Council has pegged India wheat output for the marketing year starting April at 95.5 million tonne up from the estimate of 86 million tonne for the previous year. Wheat output is likely to rise due to higher acreage, adequate soil moisture during the sowing season and favourable conditions during growth period. A record production in 2016-17, global wheat output in 2017-18 is likely to fall by 2.5% on year to 734.5 million tonne, said IGC. Wheat output is likely to fall in major producers Australia, Canada, US, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Production of the grain is seen higher in the European Union.

FCI has procured 706,676 tonne wheat from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat so far, compared with 517,020 tonne procured in the year-ago period. FCI is procuring wheat from farmers at a minimum support price. Of the total purchases, 704,000 tonne was bought in Madhya Pradesh, about 1,998 tonne wheat was purchased in Rajasthan and 678 tonne in Gujarat. Procurement in other parts of the country starts on April 1 and FCI will open about 10,000 centres across the country. Govt plans to procure 33 million tonne wheat, up from 22.9 million tonne purchased last year.

Turkish millers imported at least 500,000 million tonne of high protein wheat from alternative Black Sea and European origins for April shipment. Turkish authorities on March 15 ditched tax exemptions of a 130% import duty on wheat imports from Russia. Since then the Turkish flour industry has found itself in need of diversifying its origins. Turkey needs at least 400,000-450,000 million tonne of monthly imports of wheat. At least 100,000 million tonne of Ukrainian wheat has already been purchased. 50,000 million tonne of Hungarian wheat was booked as well as 350,000 million tonne of Latvian and Lithuanian wheat. Turkish millers preferred the quality from the small Baltic states than Hungarian and Ukrainian origin and is very competitively priced. Latvian and Lithuanian annual exports for the 2016-17 marketing year are estimated at less than 2 MMT.

Import duty unlikely to affect wheat procurement in Punjab, Haryana.

5,000 wheat purchase centres become operational in UP.

Fast moving consumer goods major ITC Ltd has purchased 15,000 tonne new wheat crop from Kota market. StarAgri, an agricultural marketing company has also been buying 2,000-3,000 tonne of wheat from Kota every day. Many other trading houses are buying the commodity since the start of new crop arrivals to build up their stocks. About 70,000 bags (1bag=100kg) of wheat arrive in the Kota market in Rajasthan daily. Supplies are yet to peak and may cross 100,000 bags in next 15 days.

Russia Agriculture Ministry has proposed cutting wheat prices for its restocking programme in the 2017/18 marketing year which starts on July1, signalling stronger competition in the domestic market. The ministry has 4 million tonnes of grains in state stocks, buys grain on the domestic market every year as interventions. it would offer 10,300 roubles ($183) for a tonne of third-class wheat in the domestic market during the 2017/18 year, compared with 10,900 roubles in the current programme. Domestic price has been declining in and expected to come under further pressure due partly to a Russian dispute with Turkey over agricultural trade and to the need for Russian farmers to offload their stock before the new crop hits the market in the summer.

Spring wheat bids in Western Canada were lower during the week ended March 24, as favourable weather in the U.S. Plains and large world supplies weighed on the market. Average Canada Western Red Spring wheat prices were down $4-$5 per tonne across the Prairie provinces. Average durum prices were mostly lower, with bids in southern Alberta, up by 25 cents, being the lone exception. Bids in Saskatchewan were steady to down $2 per tonne, to range from $260 to $263.

Futures contracts of wheat fell on the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange today due to expectation of a rise in supply in coming days. Arrivals of wheat usually peak in April when crop is harvested in most states. In Indore, about 40,000 bags (1bag=100kg) of wheat arrived and in Kota market, arrivals were at 60,000-70,000 bags.