Govt yet to fix mustard price for vanaspati blend

The government has not declared any price so far for the sale of mustard to vanaspati manufacturers to meet the mandated 20 per cent blending requirement.

"The government has not fixed any price for the supply of mustard through the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed). Mustard oil price has firmed up over the last month and this explains the reluctance of the government to come up with a price", said I R Mehra, executive director, Indian Vanaspati Producers' Association (IVPA).

Processing of mustard oil is more expensive compared with the processing of crude palm oil (CPO), widely used in manufacturing vanaspati. It takes additional Rs 1,100 to process one tonne of mustard oil.

Hence, mustard oil needs to be priced lower by Rs 1,100 a tonne than the price of imported CPO.

An order dated July 3, issued by the Vegetable Oil Products Commissioner, had mandated the blending of 20 per cent mustard oil in the manufacture of vanaspati, in addition to the existing 12 per cent blending of other indigenous oils.

The mustard thus used had to be sourced only through Nafed as the latter had procured huge quantities of mustard this year.