Indicus price monitor

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India's groundnut production in 2012-13 is estimated to be around 22 per cent less than last year, at 54.34 million tonnes, it is the second lowest in a decade. Prices were moving up from August 2012, and the IPM caught this trend. However, as indicated by the IPM column in early January, the new restrictions on exports by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority were set to cap any significant rise in the prices.

As expected, domestic prices slipped as exports fell by 48 per cent in the two months of January and February compared to the year before. Along with the new regulation of registration, since Indian ground nut prices were ruling higher than the global, export demand was also hit.

Consequently, the weaker demand led to ground nut prices falling from Rs 84 a kg in January to Rs 64 in April. Also, the all India average whole sale price of packed ground nut oil that had been rising since 2009 peaked at Rs 12,609.56 a quintal in February, and since then has come down to average Rs 12,375.72 in April. Prices are therefore set to decline as the markets stabilise to the new dynamics this year.