Red chilli gives tears to buyers

Hyderabad: Red chilli, which costs Rs 150 per kg in the wholesale markets, will be costlier in the coming two months. Traders are expecting that it will go up to Rs 250 per kg by April. The major market in Hyderabad for red chillies, Mahbub Mansion (Malakpet) market, has been importing 1,500 tonnes of red chillies daily from various districts and states, mostly from Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Markets from Madhya Pradesh and Guntur in AP supply about 70 per cent of the city’s red chilli supply. The remaining comes from Rayalaseema in AP and districts of Telangana.

Mr G. Ramesh, a trader, told DC that the chilli crop’s yield had gone down by 20 to 40 per cent at all the sources. “About 40 per cent of the crop has been lost in Madhya Pradesh and Guntur, nearly 20 per cent of the crop at Warangal has been infected with gray rot pests and 40 per cent at Bhadrachalam. It is having an impact on red chilli prices,” he said. About the future hikes, Mr Ramesh said that the price of pickle chilli, which was being imported from Warangal, had already gone up to Rs 160 per kg in wholesale markets and Rs 200 in retail markets.

“Just in a week, the chilli prices have been raised from Rs 110 to Rs 150 per kg. Imports have been coming down and it will have an impact on the prices in the coming two months. The price in wholesale markets will be around Rs 200 per kg and Rs 250 to Rs 280 in retail markets by March end,” he said. “Farmers who lost their crops are sad but those who got good crop yields are very happy with the support price. Last year they got Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 per quintal. But now they are getting Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 per quintal,” Mr Ramesh told this newspaper. Marketing department additional director G. Laxmibai told this newspaper that as the price of red chilli had increased in the markets, farmers were getting good prices for their crop.

Red chillies may go out of stock:

There could be an artificial scarcity of red chillies in the coming days as middlemen and traders are procuring the crop directly from farmers instead of purchasing the same at respective markets. Supply from Guntur to the Malakpet market has already come down by 75 per cent. Farmers and traders from Guntur district would supply about 400 tonnes of red chillies per day during season but at present the supply is only 40 to 100 tonnes.

Mr G. Balaji, proprietor of Sai Krupa Traders in Mahbub Mansion market, said that very few imports were being registered from Madhya Pradesh and Guntur. “Guntur district would send the major share to the market earlier. Since a week, the supply is too poor and less than 10 per cent of supply is coming from Guntur. We are now depending on chillies supplied from Rayalaseema and Telangana districts,” he said.

He added that there might be artificial scarcity brought on by traders from Madhya Pradesh, Rayalaseema and Guntur. “As the traders know that the price will increase in the coming days, they are stocking them,” he said.