'Need to strike a balance for devt of commodity futures mkt'

There is a need to strike a balance between producer, consumer and trader for sustainable growth and development of commodity futures market, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs C R Chaudhary said today.
He asked the industry to identify rules and regulations that are hindering growth of the sector and assured specific suggestions will be taken up with concerned authorities.
"We need to strike a balance between producer, consumer and trader for sustainable growth and development of commodity futures market in the long run," Chaudhary said while inaugurating an event organised by the industry body Assocham.
Traders will grow when they deal fairly with consumers and producers, while the producers will become self-sufficient and satisfied if they get their return together with cost of production and labour, while the consumers want things to be made available at affordable prices, he said in a statement.

On speculators, the minister said they play a major role in futures market in "fixing and jacking up prices by making promises to purchase small quantity at very high prices."
He recalled the guar crisis in futures market and how prices were jacked up to Rs 30,000 per quintal.
Emphasizing the need to set up a strong post harvest mechanism to ensure good prices to farmers, the minister said: "As such we have to make some arrangements, like the government has to think on setting up cold storages near production hubs of perishable commodities so they can be stored and sold at an apt price."

Besides, there is also a need to simultaneously develop processing centres for the producer and trader to realise the right cost, he added.