Farmers hold chilli stock for better rates

About 35 lakh tikkis (of 40 kg bags each) of chilli are lying unsold in the cold storages as farmers expect prices to rise above Rs 7,000 a quintal from this month.

Traders and farmers cite last year's experience when chilli prices started climbing from August-September and anticipate the same trend this year.

From the 4,20,585 quintals lifted in April this year, arrivals crashed to 1,55,117 (May), 1,29,926 (June), 1,88,759 (July), and 1,07,523 quintals (August). The trend is an imitation of last year's auctions.

The market prices on the high end in these months were Rs 7,400 (April), Rs 5,600 (May), Rs 5,900 (June), Rs 6,200 (July), Rs 6,000 (August) and Rs 6,700 this month.

On Thursday, farmers sold away cold storage special chillies (old crop) at Rs 5,000-6,500 per quintal, cold storage common chillies (old crop) at Rs 3,800-5,000 and new crop common chillies at Rs 2,500-4,100.

The prices of talu chillies moved around Rs 2,000 this week and last week. Farmers argued that the market prices influenced arrivals and are confident of the price touching Rs 7,000 and so are unwilling to rush the crop to the mandies.

However, this has the traders worried about the prices not being reined in despite good crop position in many states and also in China. The latter's position may hit India's exports to Bangladesh to some extent.