| "During 2004-05, the Anakapalli market received 52 lakh jaggery lumps, but in the current season so far about 42 lakh lumps have arrived in the market. The market is expected to receive another 25,000 lumps by the end of this month," said K Lakshmi Narayana Rao, president of the Anakapalli Jaggery Merchants Association. |
| He said sugarcane production was down by about 20 per cent below normal quantities due to unfavourable weather conditions. |
| "The market had expected only about 40 lakh lumps of jaggery but as the season drew to a close jaggery was received from Srikakulam and Bobbili areas, which saw arrivals reach 41-42 lakh lumps," he added. |
| Currently 1,000-1,500 jaggery lumps arrive at the market every day, mostly from Srikakulam and Bobbili areas. |
| However, fall in arrivals has resulted in higher prices for farmers. During 2005-06 season, traders paid, on an average, Rs 102 per 10 kg of black jaggery as against Rs 98 in the previous year. Farmers earned an average price of Rs 142 per 10 kg this year from prime quality coloured jaggery, compared with Rs 136 in the 2004-05. |
| Traders have stocked about 2,000 loads (each load contains 10 tonne) of jaggery, of which 40 per cent stocks are of prime quality. They are expecting good demand for these stocks from Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal and Maharashtra. |
| "New jaggery will arrive from this month end. We will then move the stocks, which are in cold storage plants, from July onwards and by September, we will clear all the stocks," he said. |
| While traders are anticipating about Rs 125 per 10 kg for black jaggery owing to demand from Orissa and Bihar, they expect lower prices for coloured jaggery as the markets in Maharashtra are already seeing arrivals of coloured jaggery, he added. |
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