Wheat procurement picks up in this week; although slower than Normal in UP, MP and Rajasthan

Following up on our past week’s article on slow wheat procurement in India, we are noticing a sharp rise in wheat procurement in some states. Punjab has procured 7.55m tonnes of wheat till end April, as against only 29k tonnes till April 24. Similarly, Madhya Pradesh reported 3.35m tonnes of wheat procurement by end April, against 1.89 till April 24. In Madhya Pradesh, the feud between FCI and state govt. on wheat price payments and inclusion of procured grain in central pool has been causing some delay in reported procurement numbers, and we believe next 2 weeks will be important to track procurement progress in all major wheat producing states.