25% rice yet to be milled in Punjab; frustrated millers say repeat of last year, ask govt to create space in godowns

Nearly 25 per cent of rice in Punjab remains unmilled two months after the milling deadline, leading to concerns from millers about logistical challenges and rising costs.

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As of June 2, only around 75 per cent of the expected rice from the current kharif marketing season 2024-25 has been delivered to government agencies. With 171.84 lakh tonnes of paddy stored, millers face pressure to expedite milling to avoid quality deterioration before the monsoon.Punjab government agencies have stored 171.84 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy in around 5,000 rice mills, which are to deliver 116.29 LMT of rice after milling to the government. To date, mills have delivered over 87 LMT of rice to government agencies.Punjab’s stores currently hold 140 LMT of rice, which implies that 53 LMT of last year's rice remains in storage Punjab has limited storage capacity and the new Rabi marketing season’s wheat procurement has also just concluded with the government procurement. This means that around 100 LMT of the freshly arrived 119 LMT wheat needs space.

Last year, millers were up in arms as the government delayed the milling process until the end of September, while the new paddy procurement season begins on October 1. That time, procurement of paddy was also delayed for weeks because millers refused to store the government's rice in their mills, demanding that the milling deadline be set to March 31, along with some other demands.Despite repeated reminders and the earlier suggested deadline of March 31 for milling completion, a significant portion of paddy remains unprocessed in rice mills across several districts. There is a lack of uniformity in milling; some districts have reached up to 97 per cent completion, while others have up to 44 per cent of milling pending.