Delay in lifting milled rice may hit supply system: Telangana Civil Supplies department

HYDERABAD: The Civil Supplies department is worried that the Food Corporation of India's (FCI) delay in lifting the customised milled rice (CMR) will adversely affect the whole supply chain system. The Civil Supplies Department is demanding the FCI to increase the storage capacity as per the demand in the State.

During the last Yasangi season, the State Civil Supplies department had procured 92 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of CMR. It then handed over these food grains to rice mills. After customised milling, the millers will have to return 68 per cent of the input, around 63 LMT of rice.

While the FCI has a target of lifting 63 LMT fresh stock and nearly 10 LMT of pending stock, they have a storage capacity of around 30 LMT (owned and hired). As per the existing norms, the rice millers have to process the paddy and return the rice in 45 days from the day of the recipient of food grains.

However, due to the vast production of food grains, the number of rice mills are not sufficient to process the paddy. On top of it, the mills do not have enough storage capacity. TS Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman Mareddy Srinivas Reddy said that though the millers are ready to hand over the rice, the procedure has been delayed as there is not enough storage capacity.

He said that if they have to submit the rice by the due date, the FCI has to lift around 8 to 10 LMT of CMR per month. Even at rate, the procure would last for six to seven months, and by the time another crop would arrive at the market leading to the chaos in the system.