Anakapalli jaggery stockists on a roll

The combination of an unexpected rise in demand for jaggery outside Andhra Pradesh and a reduction in production has ensured that jaggery stockists in Anakapalli jaggery market have raked in huge profits.

It is estimated that stockists at Anakapalli market "� the second biggest jaggery market in the country "� raked in close to Rs 3 crore more during the 2003-04 season.

"During the last jaggery season, stockists lost around Rs 10, 000-15,000 per lorry load, but this year stockists have benefited to the tune of between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 per lorry. This was mainly due to a rise in jaggery sales to Maharastra, Gujarat and Orissa and a shortfall in jaggery arrivals at the Anakapalli market," IVR Nageswara Rao, president of Anakapalli Jaggery Merchants Association, told Business Standard.

During the last jaggery season, stockists built up huge inventories of jaggery as it was available at low prices.

About 44 lakh lumps (each lump carries 15 kgs) of jaggery reached Anakapalli market during the last season and traders paid an average price of Rs 72 per 10 kg of black jaggery and Rs 85 per 10 kg of good quality jaggery.

During the 2003-04 jaggery season, the jaggery arrivals reduced to 39 lakh lumps, a shortfall of about 5 lakh lumps, and at the same time traders paid an average price of Rs 90 per 10 kg of black jaggery and Rs 110 per 10 kg of good quality jaggery.

"During the last jaggery season, several stockists stocked close to 2,500 loads (each load contains 10 tonnes of jaggery) of jaggery at their own godowns and rented cold storage plants. And finally due to lack of demand in other states, Anakapalli jaggery stockists waited up to October to clear the stocks and lost about Rs10,000 on each load in the bargain," K Buchi Raju, a leading jaggery stockist at Anakapalli market, told Business Standard.

During the current season, the 25-odd stockists in the Anakapalli market have only about 1,100 loads of jaggery in stock and of it 700 loads were sold before the end of June only.

The remaining stocks will be sold by the end of August and due to the demand stockists benefited to between Rs 25,000 and Rs.30,000, per load, Raju pointed out.