Cold wave likely to spice up jeera crop output

Recent cold wave in northern and western parts of the country seems to have brightened up prospects for jeera (cumin seed) crop this Rabi season. Industry players expect that cold weather condition, which prevailed in the first half of January, is likely to improve yield of jeera crop.

Past few weeks have seen cold wave sweeping Gujarat and Rajasthan, the two main jeera growing states in the country. "Cold weather is beneficial to jeera crop and recent cold wave will help improve the yield of jeera in these two states," said Vishnubhai Patel, director at AMPC Unjha, which is the largest jeera trading hub in the country.

The optimism of the jeera traders could be gauged from the fact that the first half of this month saw jeera prices plummeting by around Rs 300 to Rs 400 per 20 kg following reports of better yields due to cold weather conditions.

Though area under jeera crop in Rajasthan has increased this year, Gujarat has seen the acreage going down to 2.45 lakh hectares in 2009-10 as against 3.43 lakh hectares in previous fiscal. However, industry players estimate a new crop of 2.3 million bags (one bag weighing 60 kg), which include 1.5-1.6 million bags from Gujarat and 0.7-0.8 million bags from Rajasthan. Last season, the new crop was estimated to be nearly 2.2-2.3 million bags.

Overall, the total supply of jeera in 2009-10 season is likely to be 3-3.1 million bags including 0.6-0.7 million bags of carryover stock. In 2008-09, the carryover stock was approximately 1.2 million bags taking the total supply in that particular year to 3.3-3.4 million bags.

"The negative impact of lower acreage is likely to be offset by better yield. Recently, there has been an increase in temperature in Gujarat. We will have watch out for days to come as rise in mercury may affect the yield as crop is still standing," added Minesh Patel, managing director, Famous Export Import Pvt. Ltd. based in Unjha.