Jaggery traders end procurement holiday

 Normally during every jaggery season, Anakapalli jaggery traders procure jaggery from farmers till May end, and clear all their stocks before he end of August or mid September.

 Most of Anakapalli jaggery is exported to Orissa state and a few stocks are sent to Bihar and West Bengal also. But this time, stocks built up at godowns and cold storage plants due to drop in jaggery consumption in Orissa.

 During the 2002-2003 jaggery season, traders procured nearly 6000 truck loads (each load carrying 10 tonnes) of jaggery in Anakapalli market.

 Of these these stocks, which should have been lifted by mid-September, nearly 1200 truckloads could not be lifted even by September 1, causing losses to many traders.

 Add to their woes, new jaggery stocks have started coming in at the Anakapalli market. In this scenario, traders decided to stall the procurement.

 The procurement holiday could not bail them out, as only 400 loads of stocks were exported during the last 20 days. This told upon the jaggery proices which fell on average by Rs 1 per kg.