Jaggery prices soar at Anakapalli market despite huge arrivals

High demand from other states buoys prices

Despite the abnormal arrivals of jaggery lumps in December 2004, the jaggery prices are soaring to new heights at the Anakapalli market.

"The reason for the upturn is due to the high demand from traders outside Andhra Pradesh. Nearly 9.47 lakh jaggery lumps (each lump contains 15 kgs) have arrived at the Anakapalli market in December 2004, the highest in any month in the history of the country's second largest jaggery market, as compared to 3.25 lakh lumps in December 2003," I V R Nageswara Rao, president of Anakapalli Jaggery Merchants Association, told Business Standard.

"Despite huge arrivals, the jaggery prices however did not dip in December as expected by the local traders. This was due to the increase in demand for the Anakapalli jaggery in other states. Sugar mills in states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are offering Rs 100 extra on each tonne of sugarcane this season, and the sugar prices also increased by Rs 150 per quintal. The sugarcane production has also slightly fallen in some other states. Due to these reasons, sugarcane farmers in those states prefer to sell their cane to the sugar mills instead of making jaggery. So, jaggery prices are soaring at the Anakapalli market even though the arrivals are abnormal," traders said.

"The traders purchased black jaggery at Rs 85-95 per 10 kg in December 2003. Whereas this December, they purchased 10 kg of black jaggery at Rs 103-117 per 10 kg in spite of the massive arrivals at the market. This was mainly due to the large size investments make by the outside traders," Rao said.

"Normally, Anakapalli traders stock the jaggery from January onwards. However, this year, they have started piling up jaggery stocks from December on the request of outside traders. At present, 150 loads (each load contains 10 tonnes) of jaggery was stored in the cold storage plants of which around 120 to 130 loads belong to outside traders," Rao said.

"Due to the fear about the price fall in December, most of the farmers have brought huge quantities of jaggery to the market so as to get a price of around Rs 100 per 10 kg. Due to this, the market witnessed an influx of jaggery arrivals to the tune of 9.47 lakh lumps in a single month. The market received only 6.5 lakh lumps between September and November," K Buchi Raju, a senior jaggery trader at the Anakapalli market, told Business Standard.

"For the last 10 to 15 days, traders from Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh are purchasing huge quantities of jaggery stocks from the Anakapalli market. Due to this, the farmers are getting attractive prices at the market," Raju added.