A shortage of wheat, atta and maida in the market has left small and mid-sized wheat processing and wheat-based snacks companies worried, even as several small atta chakkis have closed businesses while mid-sized mills are running at 50-70% capacity.

Wheat prices have touched an all-time high of ₹32/kg in Delhi, up by about 7% in two weeks.

“Half of my day is spent scouting for maida,” one of the largest fryum manufacturers in the country told ET. “Earlier, only a handful of suppliers used to take care of my entire need of 70-80 tonnes of maida per day. Now, all my time is spent in searching for enough supplies to keep my mill running,” said the person who requested not to be identified as the segment is currently involved in litigation over differences in goods and service tax (GST) on fryum and on papad.

India is facing a shortage of wheat as a severe heat wave curtailed the country’s wheat production by 2.5% in 2021-22 rabi season while the government procurement also fell by more than 55% as farmers preferred to sell wheat in the open market which offered lucrative prices as compared to the procurement price of central government agencies.

Robust exports and higher purchases by private trade have also reduced availability of wheat in the open market. New wheat from the current rabi crop, which is still in the fields is one-and-half to two months away, while imports are not feasible because wheat prices in the international market are higher than the local prices.

This has put small and mid-sized wheat processing companies, which own regional and local brands or does contract manufacturing for big corporate brands, as well as wheat-based snacks makers under pressure with many fearing rising prices and shortage of wheat, atta and maida may throw them out of business.

“We are not able to book the orders of bulk buyers as there is shortage of wheat in the market,” said Dhaval Meghparra, a wheat miller from Gujarat. “We are forced to lower our operating hours, Small-sized chakkis grinding 5-10 tonnes of wheat per day have closed their operations. Their customers have turned to us, but we are not able to meet the demand.”According to Meghparra, wheat prices in Gujarat on Monday were ₹29/kg, up by 1.8% within 24 hours, while they rose by 3.6% in a week and by 7.4% in a fortnight. Mid-sized atta manufacturers owning local and regional brands said they have started losing market share to the big corporate players like ITC and Adani Wilmar due to the difference in the pricing of their raw material.