Groundnut prices have softened by ₹400 a quintal in Gujarat as the newly harvested crop continued to flood the markets.

However, even if the prices are showing softening trend, groundnut farmers don’t seem to be in a mood to participate in the procurement operations at MSP by the State agencies.

On October 27, at one of the largest groundnut markets at Gondal in Saurashtra, prices had touched a peak of ₹5,755 per quintal with arrivals at 8,084 quintals. On Monday (November 9), the arrivals increased to 9,397 quintals pulling down the prices to ₹5,500.

The prices had briefly slipped below the Minimum Support Price levels of ₹5,275 (for season 2020-21), to ₹5,255 on November 2 as farmers flooded the markets with their produce.

Farmer leaders informed that ahead of Diwali festival, farmers want to monetise their harvested crop and take home the cash for payments and purchases.

“APMC yards will observe holidays from November 13 to 18. Farmers have a tendency to encash their harvested crop before the festival. So we are seeing a rush for selling. Farmers prefer to sell in the open markets over participating in MSP operations even if there is not much difference in prices now,” said an office bearer at Rajkot’s Bedi APMC yard.

On Saturday, Gujarat deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel commented on the groundnut procurement status, expressing satisfaction over higher prices for farmers in the open market.

“The Centre had increased the groundnut MSP for this year. State government had also made adequate arrangements to conduct procurement operations. We expected higher crop. But recently, groundnut oil demand is high across the world and oil mills and crushers and exporters have increased their purchases. So, market prices are higher than MSP. This is the reason why many farmers are not participating in procurement operations. Just like farmers, State government is also happy about it,” Patel said.

As per the first advance estimate of Gujarat, kharif groundnut output is set to hit a record 54.6 lakh tonnes this year, much higher than 45 lakh tonnes recorded in previous year. But trade sources revealed that parts of Saurashtra and Kutch faced flooding during the monsoon and received unseasonal rains triggering concerns.

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