Guna farmers still waiting to sell coriander to ITC

Farmers of the country's first coriander agri export zone, in Guna district, are still awaiting a response from ITC's international business division. The latter had shown interest in procuring coriander of Guna last year under its Sunahara Kal Programme.

Speaking to Business Standard on the telephone, S Sivakumar, chief executive of the international business division of ITC, said: "We may procure the commodity from Guna." But he did not divulge details.

Guna grows the country's best variety of coriander, called Kumbhraj, which fetches Rs 2,200-2,500 per quintal.

A company called Neshkala Crop Producer Company Pvt Lts, formed in 2006 under a World Bank-assisted project District Poverty Initiatives Project, has offered at least 200 tonnes of coriander to ITC. Guna produced 44,000 tonnes of coriander last year.

A number of exporting agents operate in Guna and supply the commodity to Mumbai, before it is exported. However, farmers do not get a share of the state's export.

"We are in talks with ITC and want to get more from what is offered at local mandis so that farmers can save loading-unloading and transportation cost," said Ravindra Pastore, head of the Madhya Pradesh District Poverty Initiatives Project.

Despite frost, Neshkala farmers have managed to save the crop. "It has been a long wait for farmers. We hope ITC procures it," a government source told Business Standard.

Though Guna has been declared an agri export zone a few years ago, nothing has been done by the state government for coriander growers. Exporters corner the benefits of agri-export zones.

At present Neshkala supplies the Kumbhraj variety of coriander for the 'Vindhya Valley' brand, owned by the Madhya Pradesh Khadi Gramodyog Board.