Anakapalli jaggery traders see more gains

Traders at Anakapalli, the second largest jaggery market in the country, are getting comfortable margins by selling their stocks. Traders have stocked about 2,000 lorry loads (each load contains 10 tonne) of jaggery during the 2010-11 jaggery season, which ended recently.

“This year, we have purchased black jaggery at Rs 170-180 per 10 kg from the farmers at the Anakapalli market. Now, we are selling the same for Rs 240-250. After excluding all expenditures like cold storage plant rentals and interest on investments, traders are getting a profit of Rs 20,000-30,000 per lorry load,” K Buchi Raju, senior trader at the Anakapalli market, told Business Standard.

Owing to the ensuing festive season, Anakapalli jaggery traders are expecting more profits on the remaining stocks. This year, traders have stocked about 2,000 loads of jaggery, of which they had sold about 1,000 loads to other states like Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal at Rs 2.4 lakh to 2.5 lakh per 10 tonne.

Traders are expecting anywhere between Rs 2.6 lakh and Rs 2.7 lakh per 10 tonne from next week, said KLN Rao, president of the Anakapalli Jaggery Traders Association.

“Jaggery prices at Chittoor and Kamareddy markets touched Rs 160 per 10 kg. Also, prices at Latur in Maharashtra are going up. Hence, we are expecting a Rs 10-20 hike on 10 kg of jaggery. If that happens, we will see our profits increasing significantly,” he said.

Traders had incurred a loss of Rs 30,000-40,000 per load during the last jaggery season. Owing to the favourable market conditions this season, they are anticipating some recovery, Rao added.

In the 2010-2011 jaggery season, the Anakapalli jaggery market has received about 3.2 million lumps (each lump contains 15 kg of jaggery as compared with 2.96 million lumps in the preceding year.