C Shikha, Joint Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution, at an Inter-Ministerial Briefing on Recent Developments in West Asia in New Delhi on Monday.
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ANI

The Centre on Monday assured that buffer stocks of wheat and rice are sufficient to handle any supply exigencies. While affirming that West Asia’s conflict has not caused “unusual volatility” in essential commodity prices despite disruptions to crude and LPG imports, the government has directed States to aggressively target hoarding and black marketing.

Addressing an inter-ministerial briefing on recent developments in West Asia, Anupam Mishra, Additional Secretary in the Department of Consumer Affairs, said the department is keeping a close watch on the food security situation in the country. He said the department is monitoring the prices of food commodities, ensuring supply and also making efforts to prevent hoarding and black marketing.

C Shikha, Joint Secretary in Department of Food and Public Distribution, said the Centre has adequate stock of foodgrains — 222 lakh tonnes (lt) of wheat and around 380 lt of rice — almost three times above the buffer norms. The quarterly buffer norms prescribe the government to maintain minimum 74.6 lt of wheat and 135.8 lt of rice in the official reserve as on April 1.

“This is quite enough to take care of PDS requirement as well as any emergency requirement,” said Sikha. There is absolutely no hike in prices of both wheat and rice in past one year, she added.

Edible oil situation

On edible oil, where India is import dependent to an extent as high as 55-60 per cent, she said that imports from key partners such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Ukraine, Argentina and Brazil, are continuing steadily and domestic availability remains comfortable despite global uncertainties. The domestic mustard production has also strengthened the supply, she added.

However, the government will continue to monitor the edible oil situation closely and will intervene if required, she said without elaborating the kinds of interventions planned.

Though she said the retail price of sugar is stable with inflation around 3 per cent over the past three years, she declined to comment on whether the government plans to restrict exports amid reports of a move to allow higher ethanol blending with petrol from the current 20 per cent.

Mishra said the Consumer Affairs Department gathers data of wholesale and retail prices of 40 commodities on a daily basis from 528 centres across India through a mobile App. “What we have seen so far, there has been no unusual volatility in prices of the essential commodities,” he said.

Highlighting that production of pulses this year is higher than the previous year and also currently 28 lt of buffer stock of pulses lie with the government, he said, still imports of tur and urad have been allowed without quantitative restriction till March 2027.

Though he said that production of onion, potato and tomato is almost at the same level as in the previous year, the Agriculture Ministry’s latest data show that onion output is estimated to drop 11 per cent in 2025-26 while potato is seen to be almost at par with 2024-25. But production of tomato has been pegged higher by 10 per cent.

With regard to daily complaints received through consumer helpline on LPG-related issues, he said the number has significantly declined – from 919 on March 15 to 493 on April 5.

Published on April 6, 2026