With the kharif crop season at its peak, Saurashtra’s APMC yards have been flooded with groundnut. APMC has been forced to regulate the arrival of the crop. At present its prices are stable.
Gondal and Rajkot APMC, the two largest wholesale markets for groundnuts, started regulating oilseed revenue this week as a growing number of farmers are supplying more groundnuts to the market, leading to price limits. Gondal APMC had a stock of 23,000 quintals of groundnuts on Wednesday.
“We had no choice but to regulate arrivals,” said Gondal APMC secretary. Until last week, daily arrivals were manageable, and farmers were able to auction off whatever they brought to market, but now arrivals have increased. Our yard recorded a revenue of 23,000 quintals of groundnut on Wednesday and traders could not buy it in a single day. “We have decided to allow farmers to unload groundnuts till midnight on Thursday by 6 pm. There is a two-kilometre queue of groundnut-laden vehicles outside our yard,” he added.
Rajkot APMC Secretary Babulal Tejani said, “In Rajkot, groundnut auction can take at least two days. This year, the price of groundnut oil is very high and any change on a daily basis has a direct impact on the quantity of groundnuts purchased from APMC yards. If there is a slight increase in the price of groundnut oil, traders will buy in small quantities. ”
Gujarat accounts for more than half of India’s groundnut production and Saurashtra accounts for more than 60 per cent of the state’s production. In kharif season 2021, farmers planted groundnut in 19.09 lakh hectares.
Prices have remained stable despite bumper harvest estimates and farmers flooding APMC with groundnuts at the start of the marketing season. Both the model price and the price at which most of the groundnuts were sold are higher than the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 5,550 per quintal fixed by the Central Government in APMC.
Atul Kamani, former president of the Rajkot APMC Commission Agents Association and a member of the board of directors of the Rajkot APMC, said, “Prices are firm due to high prices of groundnut oil and very limited stock of oil millers as well as high demand.”
