Jaggery traders get a short-supply boost

Jaggery traders of Anakapalli have started moving out their products from cold storage units expecting a good demand for their products in other states this season.

This is since there could be a short supply of jaggery as sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra "" two major sugarcane producing states "" are selling their produce to sugar mills.

These mills are offering attractive prices to these farmers that they see no reason to get into the business of jaggery, say traders.

Cashing in on this scenario, traders in the Anakapalli jaggery market have, in the last five days, moved about 60 loads of jaggery from cold storage plants. These loads, for which the traders got a margin of Rs 5,000 on each truckload, were exported to Tata Nagar, Orissa and Kolkata markets.

Traders had stocked about Rs 31 crore worth of jaggery in the last five months in cold storage units.

"Due to the attractive prices offered by sugar mills for sugarcane, farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra preferred to sell their produce to these mills. This has led to a significant fall in the jaggery production in these states during this season. We expect a good demand for Anakapalli jaggery in other states," IVR Nageswara Rao, president, Anakapalli Jaggery Traders Association, said.

Though last month, the Anakapalli market received about 8 lakh lumps, this month it is expected to come down to 1.5 lakh lumps.

At present, between 5,000 and 6,000 lumps are coming to the market compared with 20,000 lumps per day in May. Rao said fresh stocks will start arriving from August.

During 2003-04 jaggery season (July to June), the Anakapalli market received about 39 lakh lumps (each lump contains 15 kg) of jaggery, whereas during this season up to the end-April, the market received about 50 lakh lumps.

One of the reasons that helped farmers produce more jaggery this season compared with the last season was that traders paid good prices.

During 2003-04, traders paid on an average Rs 90 per 10 kg of jaggery. In current season, jaggery makers are getting an average of Rs 110 per 10 kg of jaggery, K Buchi Raju, a senior trader, said.

During the last jaggery season, Anakapalli traders stocked about 1,600 loads (each load contains 10 tonne) of jaggery at different cold storage units, while this season they have stocked about 2,500 loads.