Pulses' importers taken aback as prices halve in three months

Importers went for bulk bookings presuming last year’s high prices will prevail.

The prices of pulses have halved in the past three months due to increased availability resulting from bulk booking by government and private importers, who had mistakenly presumed that last year’s high prices would continue to hold.

There has been bulk booking from Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania, in addition to the traditional sources of Myanmar and Australia. India’s annual deficit between demand and output of pulses, made good through imports, is about three million tonnes.

Quoted currently at Rs 28 a kg in the Vashi wholesale market, tur has recorded a decline of almost 50 per cent from Rs 52 a kg about three months before. Similarly, masoor has dived from Rs 60 a kg to Rs 28 a kg, while urad fell from Rs 80 to Rs 55 a kg since October this year.

 

So much so, that market sources believe the fall in prices may force many Indian importers to default on their bookings in the coming weeks. Tur, for instance, was booked in African countries at as much as $900 a tonne. The price here is now the equivalent of $550-560 a tonne.

According to Sri Prakash Goenka, Director of U Goenka Sons, a Mumbai-based pulses’ importer and trader, nearly 1,000 containers of 20-25 tonnes each has been hitting Indian ports every week. In the last quarter, the commodity — almost the only source of protein among the poor — has plunged by three to five per cent in spot markets. Chana in the Delhi market declined to Rs 24 a kg from Rs 24.70 a kg, while tur in Akola and urad in Jalgaon have plunged to Rs 32.25 per kg and Rs 36.16 a kg from Rs 33 per kg and Rs 36.88 a kg, respectively, a week earlier.

Farmers were estimated to have planted an additional 10 per cent area on the assumption that last year’s record high price would continue this year as well. Last year, urad and tur prices hit a record Rs 100 a kg and Rs 80 a kg, respectively, due to shortage of domestic output. If the current trend continues, farmers are likely to revert to other remunerative crops next year, such as cotton and oilseeds. To avoid this and, nd thereby, a possibility of lower output next year, the government should open export markets, said Himat Chandra, partner, Trimurthi Traders, a Vashi-based trader.

Export of pulses has been banned for two years. But opening of exports may not fetch a favourable result, since there has been a bumper global output. In India, the output is estimated to be 10 per cent higher this year, at 15 million tonnes.

K C Bharatiya, president of the Pulses Importers’ Association, says the quantity of imports for the year is likely to remain at three million tonnes.