Central rice stocks at 4X buffer

THE GOVERNMENT'S CENTRAL-POOL rice stocks continue to surge despite record offloading of grain through open market sale, allocation to states, for ethanol manufacturing and Bharat rice initiative in FY25.

- SANDIP DAS

Sources told FE that while 4.63 million tonne (MT) of rice from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) stocks was offloaded in the market at subsidised rates through various initiatives in FY25, the current central pool stock is over 59 MT, four times the buffer of 13.54 MT for July 1.

Officials said the current stock with FCI includes about 21 MT of grain yet to be received from millers. High procurement and robust crop output are the reasons for the stocks being high.