Coimbatore Tea Auction To Witness Higher Offerings

Coimbatore: Total offerings reached a high of 6.55 lakh kg at the Coimbatore tea auction on March 30. Leaf grades totalled 2.71 lakh kg and the rest was of the dust. The Orthodox leaf grades saw selective demand. Well-made Nilgiris teas quoted lower by Rs 3 to Rs 4 a kg, others suffered withdrawals. CIS exporters operated albeit selectively. Limited quantities of Orthodox dust were picked at irregular levels. Selected brighter liquoring teas saw some demand the rest remained barely steady. There were export enquiries for the medium/plainer bolder grades, but were quoting Rs 2 lower. Internal buyers extended support on smaller brokens and fannings at market level. Exporters remained selective. There was fair demand for the CTC dust grades. AVT and Indco operated on good liquoring teas. The Orthodox highgrowns ranged between Rs 70 and Rs 75 a kg, while the best CTC dusts ranged between Rs 59 and Rs 66.

Bombay Burmah Teas Receives 4 Awards

Kochi: The nine-member international jury of the Third Edition of the Golden Leaf India Awards: Southern Tea Competition has chose 20 estates for the 40 awards here. Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation Ltd topped with four awards followed by Harrisons Malayalam Ltd (three), Vigneshwar Estate Tea Factory and Hittakkal Estate Tea Factory (two each) while other estates won one each. The international jury comprising prominent tea buyers from major importing countries and renowned tea connoisseurs evaluated the short listed teas, which were subjected to first level of screening and the second level being technical analysis for pesticide residues and heavy metals.
The international jury included: Prof. Randy Altman, World Tea & Coffee, USA; Ms Penny Kelly, Typhoo Tea Ltd, UK; Mr Alexey Shvetsov, Orimi Trade Ltd, Russia; Mr Bryan Baptist, Ceylon Tea Brokers Ltd, Sri Lanka; Mr Mohsin M. Saify, Tapal Tea Pvt Ltd, Pakistan; Mr Sanjay Sethi, Dubai Tea Trading Centre, UAE; Mr Edward Foster, Thompson Lloyd & Ewart Ltd UK; Mr Paul Sandys, Unilever, Kolkata; and Mr Azam Monem, Williamson Magor, Kolkata. Southern Tea Competition is a joint initiative of The United Planters' Association of Southern India and the Tea Board.

Wheat Harvest Likely To Reach 72 Mt Says Pawar

Ahmedabad: Dispelling doubts, the Union Agriculture and Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, has said the country is set to harvest about 72 million tonnes of wheat this year compared to 68 mt last year. They would have 2.50 lakh tonnes of sugar as against our requirement of 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes. But they still have a long way to go on the food security front. Mr Pawar said the shortage of pulses and oilseeds since the last couple of years had forced the Government to think of importing these commodities. The area under groundnut in Gujarat has been reduced and that of cotton increased. Lauding the efforts made by the State Governments in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, among others, Mr Pawar stressed upon the urgent need to fortify food grains and other articles with micronutrients for distribution to those below the poverty line through the public distribution system.

Rubber Witnesses Up Trend

Kottayam: Spot rubber increased sharply on March 23. Sheet rubber RSS 4 increased to Rs 93 from Rs 90 a kg at Kottayam and Kochi. The under current was extremely bullish as covering groups and buyers from the futures markets turned aggressive. The rubber futures maintained to make handsome gains in leading commodity exchanges. On MCX, the April contract was traded at Rs 95.16 against Rs 94.33 a kg for RSS 4. The grade improved at its April contract to Rs 94.23 (92.65), May Rs 98.25 (96.93), June Rs 101.43 (99.96) and July to Rs 103.35 (101.78) a kg on NMCE. The volumes totalled 3,490 (3,031) tonnes. The April futures for RSS 3 closed at 268.2 yen (Rs 99.22) against 267.9 yen a kg at TOCOM. Spot rubber prices were (Rs/kg): RSS-4: 93 (90); RSS-5: 92.50 (89.50); Ungraded: 91.50 (88.50); ISNR 20: 92 (89) and Latex 60 per cent: 64.20 (64.20).

Tea Board Delegation To Visit Pak In April

Kochi: A delegation from the Tea Board is to leave for Cairo on March 22, for finalising the opening of a Tea Marketing Centre in the Egyptian capital. The delegation will have members from Upasi and India Tea Trade Association apart from the Tea Board. Another Tea Board delegation will be visiting Pakistan from April 14-15 for talks with its counterparts there on movement of tea on land-route via the Wagah boarder. The Tea Board is identifying new markets for tea and special thrust is being given to Iran, Egypt and Pakistan. Iraq is now the single largest market for Indian teas. Exports to Russia have remained to fall following the change in consumer preference of late for orthodox tea from CTC teas. Currently the output of orthodox tea in the country was only 10 per cent of the total output and given the growing demand for it they have decided to have a five-year plan to increase the output of orthodox tea from 80 mkg to 120 mkg.

Tyre Manufacturers Want Prohibition On Rubber Futures

Chennai: Tyre manufacturers said that rubber futures are not helping in price discovery and risk management, and they have demanded a ban on forward trading of the commodity. In a letter to the Commerce, Industry and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretaries, the Automotive Tyre Manufactuers Association (ATMA) has said the demand for ban on rubber futures is no different from the bar imposed by the Centre on forward trading in urad, tur, rice and wheat. The steep increase in the rate of rubber has imposed severe financial burden on the tyre industry. The wild future quotations in respect of rubber had gone beyond the basic objectives of future trading and resulted in spot rate getting distanced to cost plus reasonable profit to the grower.
The average market price of rubber during April 2006- February 2007 was Rs 95 per kg against what the Rubber Board had stated as a reasonable rate of Rs 70-80 a kg. It is important to note that the reasonable price for rubber at Rs 70-80 has been assessed by the Rubber Board Chairman as one of the unsaid mandate for the board to ensure that the grower gets his due share by way of cost plus reasonable return/profit. Though traded volumes are low, it creates an upward momentum and the physical trade looks upon the futures for market direction. Hence, spot rate increased immediately. This results in growers deciding to hold back their produce in the hope of getting even higher prices.

Wheat Prices Skyrocket In MP

In Madhya Pradesh, despite acute power shortage and fertiliser crisis, a hike in minimum support prices has led to a surge in wheat prices. The Madhya Pradesh government has directed its agencies to procure an additional 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat this year. Private players, including ITC, Cargill, Hind Lever and others procured 500,000 quintals roughly, according to the sources. Even though the state government has not embarked on supplementary wheat procurement through its agencies - Madhya Pradesh Civil Supplies Corporation and Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing Federation, -a good response to "Lok-1" variety has been reported in Vidisha, Sehore and Ashta mandis while Bhopal mandi has reportedly received a lukewarm response with a minimum of 2,000-3,000 quintals during the last one week. Lok-1 wheat prices were hovering at Rs 750-1,425 a quintal. The prices are likely to go up further since private sector atta makers are waiting for arrival of Sharbati variety of wheat which is rich in protein. Sharbati arrivals will begin at the end of this month or first week of April. Although all districts of the state grow wheat Ashta, Ganjbasoda, Indore, Dewas, Guna, Ashoknagar, Sehore, Vidisha and some parts of Raisen and Sagar districts are know for the high quality Sharbati wheat. The prices normally start from Rs 1400 per quintal even in open market and cross Rs 2000 per quintal. Last week prices of Sharbati variety prices touched a maximum of Rs 2210. During January this year the state government had admitted a fall in wheat production by 5-15 per cent from the targeted 90 lakh tonnes from 44 lakh hectare acreage.

Early Crop Likely To Affect Onion Prices

Onion prices are expected to witness further fall to Rs 5 a kg in the wake of fresh arrivals from Maharashtra, which have hit the market early this season. At present, onion prices are in the range of Rs 6.50-7.50 a kg at the Vashi APMC. Arrivals from Maharashtra begin around April 1 and continue throughout the month. This season, the arrivals have begun earlier, albeit in small quantity, and are estimated to continue till the last week of April. The supply is expected to exceed the demand, owing to a bumper crop this season. About 225 trucks, each laden with 12 tonne of onion, have been arriving at the Vashi APMC against the normal supply of 100-125 trucks. A section of traders is apprehensive over the continued supply of onion. They argued that farmers might not sell their produce at prices lower than their cost of cultivation, raising fears of a tight supply once onion dropped below Rs 5.50 a kg. The country shipped around 10.5 lakh tonne of onion as on March 5 and the export figures for the current financial year were likely to touch 11 lakh tonne, a 41 per cent increase over the last year's exports of 7.78 lakh tonne.

Oilseeds Production Down By 1.3 Mn Tn: Trade Body

New Delhi: Oilseeds production for the crop year ending June is projected at 22.67 million tonne, down from 23.97 million tonne a year ago, according to latest industry estimate released by Central Organisation for Oil Industry and Trade. Rabi output is projected at 9.52 million tonne, against 10.27 million tonne while Kharif output is estimated at 13.15 million tonne, against 13.70 million tonne. Kharif oilseeds crops are sown in June-July and harvested in October. Rabi oilseeds crops are sown in October-November and harvested in February. The latest advance estimate has revised the kharif oilseeds estimate upwards from an earlier estimate of 12.84 million tonne. Soybean June-July output is estimated at 7.66 million tonne, against 7.05 million tonne. The soybean estimate has been revised up by 400,000 tonne from the previous estimate, as the crop benefited from the rains in September.Mustard output is at 6.02 million tonne, against 6.77 million tonne. COOIT had earlier projected mustard output at 5.80 million tonne. Industry officials admitted there had been diversion of mustard acreage to wheat in Rajasthan. Groundnut estimate has been pegged at 5.4 million tonne, against 6.25 million tonne.

Indian Pepper Exports Decline

Kochi: Export order table of India is more or less blank for February and March as the country is no more an attractive destination. The exports have been badly hit due to the stoppage of subsidies as it had led to a big leap in business in 2006. The government had stopped the scheme on February 2 as the target of 20,000 tonne had been achieved. Thanks to this, India is no more a preferred destination on the price front as Vietnam has turned aggressive in the export market. As the plucking of pepper is in full swing, Vietnam has slashed their prices to $2400-2300 per tonne for 500 gm/l. Vietnam traders have quoted ASTA at $2550, while India is currently quoting at $2800 per tonne. Experts said importing nations, including USA, are not showing much interest in Vietnam as they expect prices to come down further as season progresses. Some feel the price would go down to $2000. Production in Vietnam will be more than 100,000 tonne and as season progresses further their quotations will be further down. Value added manufacturers from India are also placing orders in Vietnam thanks to advantage on the price front. In February, India was the third largest importer from Vietnam with 548 tonne. Indonesia is offering $2800 per tonne, while Brazil's price levels are the same with Vietnam. But Brazil has a stock of 6000 tonne. Meanwhile Indian markets are facing a serious threat from Sri Lanka also as the period of maximum import cap of 2500 tonne will end by March 31. From April onwards, Lankan pepper may pour into the Indian market. Sri Lanka is offering pepper at $ 2500 C&F to India and a large quantum of their total production will be exported to India. It is estimated that Karnataka will have a crop size of 18,000 -20,000 tonne, but some traders estimate the size at 15,000 tonne. But the course of the market will depend mostly on the movement of prices in futures market. According to leading traders, the huge stock position in exchanges would be harmful to the market as a few investors had piled up the stock. The instability in futures trading also affects the domestic market to adopt a clear route. If there is heavy sell off in the futures trading owing to changes in the global market, it might be disastrous for the Indian black pepper market.