Mustard procurement inching towards 5 lakh-tonne mark

2023-05-04 15:22:25

The procurement of mustard at minimum support price by Nafed (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India) is seen inching closer to half a million-tonne mark. Despite this, prices still rule below the MSP of ₹5,450 per quintal across various agricultural produce marketing committee (APMC) yards.

Haryana leads

As of May 4, Nafed has procured 4.76 lakh tonnes (lt) of mustard valued at ₹2,599 crore in the ongoing rabi marketing season. The bulk of the procurement, so far, has been in Haryana, where Nafed purchased over 3.47 lt. In Madhya Pradesh, the procurement was 71,759 tonnes.

Similarly in Rajasthan, the procurement stood at 34,980 tonnes, while in Gujarat it was 23,028 tonnes. In the previous year – the rabi marketing season for 2022-23, there was no public procurement of mustard as the market prices ruled above the MSP.

The government steps in to procure cotton, maize and oilseeds such as mustard and groundnut only when their prices rule below the MSP. In the case of wheat and rice, the procurement is for the central pool for the public distribution system.

In the current marketing season, even as the procurement process is on, arrivals in APMC yards have slowed down as prices continue to rule below the MSP. Large farmers continue to hold back mustard, anticipating higher prices. “The daily market arrivals seemed to have slowed down, resulting in slight firming of prices, which have moved up by about ₹100 per quintal over the past three days. Daily market arrivals across mandis during the early part of May ranged between 7 and 8 lakh bags of 50 kg each, while it was 13.5 lakh bags during April. We expect the prices to remain weak going ahead due to the bearish sentiment in the edible oil segment,” said Rahul Chauhan of IGrain India.

Further, the reduction in edible oil prices by solvent extractors following a decline in global prices is likely to weigh on mustard prices.

As per the second advance estimates, India is seen harvesting a record mustard seed output of 128.18 lakh tonnes during 2022-23, over previous year’s 119.63 lakh tonnes, an increase of 7 per cent. Mustard output has more than doubled since 2014-15, when it stood at 62.82 lakh tonnes.