Guntur mirchi prices may crash further

Mirchi yard sources say that prices may fall below Rs 1,000 this season

The mirchi price at the Guntur mirchi yard is likely to crash further from the present price of Rs 1,700 a quintal. This is the lowest price ever quoted during the past four seasons, and the price may fall further to Rs 1,000 this season, market yard sources said.

While the mirchi crop from the region has been estimated at 12,00,000 tikkis (bags), only 38,25,060 tikkis (15,30,027 quintals) have been sold at the yard from January 1 to April 28. Sensing the likely crash of the mirchi price, smart farmers have opted for cold storages.

Subsequently, the 61 cold storages in and around the city have been filled to the brim with 50 lakh tikkis of fresh mirchi crop.

As officials calculated the total crop size at one crore tikkis, the crop, which is yet to hit the market yard, has been worked out at 12,00,000 tikkis.

The State Market Federation (Markfed), which was asked by the government to rescue the farmers by purchasing the crop from them at Rs 2,700 a quintal, has not been of much help to them.

As the Markfed officials stick to the quality parameters, farmers have not benefited much from the government's intervention. The figures speak for themselves.

The Markfed has so far purchased 1,55,813 tikkis worth Rs 18.93 crore at Guntur while its Sattenapalli counterpart has purchased only 29,000 tikkis worth Rs 4.13 crore. Markfed may buy nearly five to six per cent of the crop when the season comes to a close.

The farmers have come to terms with the ground realities and have surrendered to the traders, who as always seem to be having the last laugh.

The traders pulled down the open market price from Rs 2,500 to Rs 1,700 a quintal. Election hullabaloo and the scorching summer seem to have made the farmers docile.

The farmers are in a hurry to dispose their crop at the earliest and go home with whatever cash they can grab. They are also disheartened at the news that the export orders are not as rosy as they have been made out at the start of the season.

As the mirchi yard will be closed for a fortnight in May, the season for 2003-04 is likely to end in June. The crop arrivals at the yard have increased by almost 90 per cent this season. This is cited as the main reason for the extreme fluctuations in prices, which at one time ruled at Rs 3,500 a quintal.

The crop arrivals were recorded at 19,50,422 tikkis during 2000-01 season, 19,28,443 tikkis during 2001-02 and 21,29,400 tikkis during the 2002-03 season.

The minimum and maximum model prices quoted during 2000-01 season were Rs 2,000 and Rs 2,800 respectively; Rs 2,200 and Rs 3,500 respectively during the 2001-02 season; Rs 2,400 and Rs 3,500 during 2002-03; and Rs 1,700 and Rs 3,700 respectively during 2003-04.