Nafed feels the pulse, ropes in pvt retailers to sell subsidised grains
Nafed launched the pilot of selling subsidised pulses under the Bharat Dal brand through Reliance Retail and Big Basket. It plans to soon begin sale of Bharat Atta through the private retail channels, confirmed Nafed officials, who did not wish to be identified.
Reliance has started selling Bharat Dal from end-October and has been getting increasingly good response.
At some of the Reliance stores, the sale of Bharat Dal is about 50% of the total sale of chana dal at that store, said industry sources. Although subsidised chana dal is competition to their own private labels, private retailers have agreed to sell Bharat Dal as they get good volumes and because of government pressure, said sources.
Reliance did not respond to the email sent by ET.
The availability of Bharat chana dal is more in north and west India where Nafed is getting the Bharat dal processed. Sources told ET that there was not much difference in the quality of Bharat dal and the private label dal as both get chana from Nafed, the only agency in India which has stocks of chana.
