India is expected to have a bumper turmeric output this kharif season. Farmers increased area under sowing for the spice as they received higher returns for the produce last year.This year, the total production is estimated to be around 8.5 million bags (1 bag= 75 kg), while it stood at 6.5 million bags in 2010-11 and 4.8 million bags in 2009-10, traders said.
“Farmers earlier got around Rs 20-35 a kg for their produce. In the last two years, farmers have been getting good returns of Rs 175-225 a kg,” said Manubhai Shah, a Navi Mumbai-based trader.
Erode in Tamil Nadu is estimated to produce 4.5 million bags this year, compared to 3.5 million bags last year.
Farmers received a good price for their crop in the last two years, which led farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to increase acreage under the spice. Although prices have begun to witness a fall, but in 2010, prices had reached an all-time high of Rs 16,000 a quintal.
Prices have seen a decline since January as last year’s production and arrivals reached at their peak. This year’s carryforward stock could be between 1.5 million bags and 2 million bags, taking the total stock for 2011-12 to over 10 million bags, thus, stocks would be higher.
Sowing is still on and has picked up on better weather conditions. Fresh crop comes to the market from January.
Traders and analyst say prices of the spice will rise for few more weeks on strong domestic and international demand, but, bumper production will soon begin to weigh on the price of the commodity when arrival season comes near.
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Turmeric prices on NCDEX have begun to move northward from September 27 and have so far seen a 23 per cent rise to Rs 5,432 a quintal.
“Currently, domestic demand is strong from north India due to the ongoing festive season, and export demand for the spice is coming in from Singapore and Malaysia,” said Nalini Rao, a spices research analyst at Angel Commodities.
Turmeric exports rose 52 per cent to 36,500 tonnes during April-August this year, according to the data released by the Spices Board of India.
Price of turmeric at spot markets varied from Rs 6,000-7,200 a quintal depending on the quality. Traders said buying support from stockists as well as retailers, driven by seasonal demand against restricted arrivals mainly pushed up prices.