BKS alleges Adani Wilmar, Jayant Agro, NCDEX nexus for castor seed price suppression

Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) on Friday alleged that several major companies including Adani Wilmar, Jayant Agro Organics Ltd. and Gokul Refoils & Solvent Ltd., among others were part of an anti-farmer corporate nexus with other exchanges for suppressing castor seed prices.

According to Maganbhai Patel, President - Gujarat Region, BKS, the nexus was involved in keeping castor seed prices lower in the spot market and exchanges, thereby favouring foreign buyers at the cost of Indian farmers.

"From the information available to us, we have found that corporate groups such as Adani, Jayant Ago, Gokul Refoils besides some exporters and processors have created an anti-farmer nexus and artificially suppressing the prices in futures market on NCDEX," said Patel addressing media here.

"There is no logic for prices to remain suppressed in such tight demand-supply scenario. Farmers have to sell their crop at almost half of their cost. We appeal to the farmers not to sell crop till the prices match the cost," said Patel.

BKS alleged that following an announcement of production estimates of castor seed crop at a recently held conference in Ahmedabad last week, castor seed prices dipped by five per cent from Rs 3800 per quintal to Rs 3600 per quintal within a week.

As per BKS, the average cost of input of castor in Gujarat comes to around Rs 60,000 to 70,000 per metric tonne (PMT) while the current price levels are almost half at Rs . 34,000 per metric tonne. BKS has urged the government to announce minimum support price of Rs . 70,000 PMT and minimum export value of USD 2,000 PMT for castor oil with immediate effect to protect the interest of the farmers and help them to realise the cost of inputs," Patel said.

However, while Kanubhai Thakkar, MD, Gokul Refoils & Solvent Ltd. and Abhay Udeshi, Director, Jayant Agro Organics Ltd. denied being involved in any such nexus, Atul Chaturvedi, CEO of Adani Wilmar declined to comment.

"We have no such nexus with NCDEX or anyone. We follow and support fundamentals of market and have been vocal on the same," said Udeshi. Apparently, the Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) had estimated castor crop at around 1.29-1.38 million tonnes for the year 2014-15, up by 15 per cent as against last year. As per BKS estimates, the crop size stood at 1.14 million tonnes for 2014-15 as against the consumption of about 1.32 million tonnes.

Moreover, the farmer body stated that the carryover stock was estimated at 600,000 tonnes, resulting in low prices of castor seed. Meanwhile, BKS is planning to approach the Finance Department in the Central government to seek intervention.