A bumper harvest and market demand has prompted Shakti Bhog to set itself a revenue target of Rs 2,000 crore for the financial year to end-March 2009. The company procures wheat from Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. Going forward, the atta company will grind almost 600,000 quintals of wheat per month as against the current 500,000 quintals.

KK Kumar, managing director of Shakti Bhog Foods, said Shakti Bhog is also looking to acquire two to three companies in the value-added business, and has earmarked Rs 200 crore for its acquisition strategy. The company also has in the pipeline more than 25 value-added products such as fibre-enriched digestive crackers to control diabetics and cholesterol, which it expects to launch across India shortly. At present, traders are waiting for the release of wheat in the open market to buy the grain in huge quantities. Even though the Union government is yet to take a decision on this, traders expect wheat sales to occur soon.

“The government will have to sell wheat in the open market, else we will see more wastage," said a wheat trader. "Every year, nearly Rs 10,000 crore of wheat is wasted because of bad warehousing conditions. Government expenditure to hoard wheat in godowns is an immense burden.”