100 million tonnes: Amount of wheat Indians are likely to eat in 2016-17 Closing stocks of wheat with Central agencies as on March 2017 is projected to be 10 mn tn higher
Indians are expected to consume over 100 million tonnes of Wheat in 2016-17 marketing year that will end in March if Centre’s production estimates and trade’s import numbers for the year are correct.
The government on Wednesday, as per its second advanced estimate, said that wheat output in 2015-16 crop year which is marketed till March 2017 is around 92.29 million tonnes. This is lower than its earlier estimate of 93.5 million tonnes.
Assuming that the production numbers are accurate, the 2016-17 season started with an opening wheat stocks of around 14.5 million tonnes with the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
This when added to the total estimated production of 92.29 million tonnes, takes the total availability from domestic crop at 106.7 million tonnes.
That apart, trade sources said that India is expected to import not less than 5.5 million tonnes of wheat in 2016-17. This takes up the availability to almost 112.2 million tonnes.
The closing stocks of wheat with Central agencies as on March 31, 2017 is projected to be around 8-10 million tonnes.
Even if the ending stocks are towards the higher end of this band, would mean that India has consumed over 102 million tonnes of wheat in 2016-17 crop marketing year that will culminate in March.
“Till last few years, India’s total annual wheat consumption was around 91-92 million tonnes, assuming that there is yearly increase of 1.3 per cent in consumption, 2016-17 numbers show that wheat consumption in the country has seen a staggering rise in 2016-17,” a leading trader said. Know more