Central Pool Rice Stocks at Highest Level in Two Decades
03-Jul-2025 09:58 AM
Central Pool Rice Stocks at Highest Level in Two Decades
★ As of July 1, 2025, rice stocks in the central pool have reached 37.48 million tonnes, the highest in the last 20 years and nearly three times the buffer norm of 13.54 million tonnes.
★ Currently, 19.89 million tonnes of paddy are yet to be received from millers.
★ The surge in stocks is primarily due to higher procurement under the free ration scheme (PMGKAY) and low offtake under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS).
★ In the 2024–25 season, FCI and state agencies have procured 53.11 million tonnes of rice, slightly up from 52.54 million tonnes in the previous year.
★ Around 41 million tonnes of grain are distributed annually under free ration and other welfare schemes.
★ If the stockpile isn’t reduced, storage and subsidy costs may rise significantly. There is also a risk of a storage crunch before the 2025–26 paddy procurement season, which begins in October.
★ To reduce the surplus, the government has decided to allocate 2.8 million tonnes of rice to distilleries for ethanol production in FY26 at a subsidized rate of ₹2250 per quintal.
★ In FY25, 4.63 million tonnes of rice were allocated for social welfare schemes (1.12 million tonnes), OMSS (1.96 million tonnes), and ethanol production (2.3 million tonnes), but only 0.19 million tonnes were actually sold under OMSS.
★ The continuous rise in production and stocks has put downward pressure on rice prices, and this pressure is expected to persist going forward.