Along with cumin, turmeric was bullish on spoilage fears

- Commodity Current - Jayavadan Gandhi

As the rabi season is now nearing completion, the supply of agricultural produce in the state's agricultural markets is decreasing significantly. There is a slight fluctuation in grains, spices, pulses and telebia, and the demand situation is weak in the market. However, the government is pushing hard to control rising prices of spices and pulses. In terms of pulses, currents are being seen in the markets due to reduction in planting compared to last year as well as fallows. According to government reports, due to 34 percent crop cut, prices are high at 1600 to 1700 per mane and 1800 to 1900 for best quality. Prices have remained strong due to a lack of supply despite empty pipelines. Even in Urad, the market is right due to the impact on production due to droughts. Plantation in the state has been reduced by 17 percent compared to last year. With a rise in prices of 300 to 400 rupees, it is at the level of 1400 to 1600 per mane. Seeing the boom in pulses this year, stockists and black marketeers are active, the government has turned a red eye against hoarding elements, especially importers who buy foreign goods.

In particular, the importers of Tuwer and Addad have been instructed not to keep the stock of goods ordered from abroad for more than 30 days. The government has started cracking down on hoarding importers. The state governments have also been appealed to be vigilant in this matter. Currently, the market is heated due to irregular supply in the market. Tuwer and udder markets have been rising in the local markets for the past few days on fears of production disruption in foreign pulse producers Myanmar and East Africa. In this situation, there is still a possibility of a ten percent price increase in Tuvar in the future.

The impact of inflation is especially prevalent on the sugar industry and sugar is becoming bitter. More goods than expected went abroad and currently production is also reduced by 80 percent, with the closure of more than 500 mills in the country, the sugar issue has become a headache for the government due to the possibility of a big gap in demand supply.

Turmeric, Coriander and Isabgul markets are also moving towards bullish trend due to cumin in spices. The turmeric market has seen a boom in the last fortnight with the turmeric market surging by around 12 per cent due to the fear of widespread damage to ready-made turmeric goods amounting to two to two and a half lakh sacks due to floods. Realizing the supply-demand mismatch, speculators are also fearing that like cumin, turmeric has entered the futures, prices are hovering at five-month highs. Prices rose to Rs 8,500 last week on expectations of significant spoilage due to droughts in Marathwad areas of Maharashtra, the largest producer of turmeric, against expectations of 25 to 30 lakh sacks. However, due to profitable selling, turmeric June futures remained at the level of 8100 at the end of the week, but due to the strong fundamentals in turmeric, there is an expectation in the market that the prices will go up to 9000 rupees due to the bullishness of the turmeric market even in the long term. The other turmeric producing areas of Andhra Pradesh and districts like Guntur, Krishna are also feared to deteriorate as the stock of turmeric gets soaked. The production of turmeric is expected to be around 13.3 lakh tonnes this year. Turmeric exports are also in high demand, increasing by ten percent this year.