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Turmeric prices are ruling lower than the same period last year, as the new crop has started arriving in the key-producing regions of Tamil Nadu and Telangana on sluggish demand and expectation of a higher crop.
This is mainly on account of an increase in acreages, primarily in Maharashtra.
Lower prices at the beginning of the marketing season has started to trigger demand from growers for inclusion of turmeric under the ambit of the minimum support price (MSP) scheme.
The prices of turmeric at the beginning of the marketing season are ruling lower by at least a tenth in various markets, such as Erode and Nizamabad, over the same period last year on sluggish demand, as stockists are staying away from the markets.
Prices have come down by ₹8-10 per kg in Nizamabad and by ₹8 per kg in Erode over the past two months, said Premchand Motta, a leading spices broker.
“The demand is less right now, and will pick up from April 15 onwards,” he said.
Motta estimates the 2018-19 crop to be in the region of 90-92 lakh bags of 70 kg each, higher than previous year’s 71-75 lakh bags.
In Nizamabad, turmeric prices are between ₹40-60 per kg, mainly due to the higher moisture content in the produce being brought by farmers to the markets, while in Erode the prices are hovering between ₹55-72 per kg.
“The demand is slow this year. Normally, it comes in from January 15 and peaks during March. But this year there is hardly any demand,” said RKV Ravishankar, President of Erode Turmeric Merchants Association .
Also, the turmeric crop is higher this year on rise in acreages and the adoption of high yielding varieties by farmers. This is despite water shortages impacting the yields in some areas.
‘Include under MSP’
As prices at the beginning of the season are ruling lower, officials of the Telangana agriculture department recently urged the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) to include turmeric under the MSP scheme. Considered a cash crop, turmeric is not currently among those 25 crops for which a support price is declared by the Centre. Sarampally Malla Reddy, Vice-President of the All India Kisan Sabha, said the prevailing prices are not remunerative for the growers as the cost of cultivation is on the rise.
Reddy demanded that the Centre should consider turmeric among the list of crops for which the MSP is declared. “The Centre should announce a MSP of least ₹10,000 per quintal for turmeric,” Reddy added.
According to the Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) in Kozhikode, the overall area under turmeric is on the rise in recent years.
“As per the information received from Telangana, the area under turmeric this year (2018-19) is around 50,000 ha which is a decline of 3,000 ha last year. Similarly in Tamil Nadu, area has decreased to 23,647 ha in 2018-19 from 25,500 ha in 2017-18. But from Maharashtra, it is learnt that the area under turmeric has increased substantially this year and hence they are expecting an increase of 15 per cent in turmeric production in 2018-19,” said Homey Cheriyan, Director, IISR.
The average area under turmeric cultivation in Maharashtra for the last five years stood at 13,494 ha.
Further, Cheriyan said, that as per the information received from various states, the first advance estimate arrived for production of turmeric in the country for 2018-19 is 11.49 lakh tonnes.
This is marginally higher than 11.33 lakh tonnes produced last year.
New variety
Cheriyan said that the short duration and high yielding variety — IISR’s Pragati, released in 2017 — has been gaining traction among farmers. The IISR Pragati, which takes only 180 days to harvest, provides a 30-34 per cent yield increase over the national and local turmeric varieties.
It provides an average yield of 38 tonnes per hectare (fresh rhizomes), which can go up to 52 tonnes per hectare under favourable conditions.
India is the largest turmeric producer and accounts for 80 per cent of the global production and demand for the commodity.
India exported around 1.07 lakh tonnes of turmeric valued at ₹1,035.67 crore during 2017-18, according to the Spices Board.
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