Leading agricultural economists have stated that if the promises made by both the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Congress party in their poll manifestoes are adhered to by them in a timebound manner, in the event of coming to power, the annual growth rate in agriculture can be sustained at 4 to 5 per cent, pushing the GDP growth to 7 to 8 per cent. Most economists, however, did not favour some issues put up by the CPM and CPI in their agenda for agriculture sector Page.

Steady arrivals of sugar at Calcutta

The arrival of imported sugar especially from Santos (Brazil) is taking place at both the docks of Calcutta Port Trust (CPT). According to port sources, two consignments of sugar totalling 16,285 tonnes arrived at Calcutta and Haldia docks in the week beginning August 13 of which Haldia's share was 12,285 tonnes. Meanwhile, unloading of three sugar vessels at Haldia dock and one at Calcutta is in progress at the sametime.

Assam tea industry baffled

The current spate of insurgent activities in the state of Assam has left the tea industry completely baffled. A falling production and declining prices in the early months of the current year had added to the dimensions of the overall crisis.

South Indian contribution to forex

As against the country's foreign exchange earnings of Rs 4,540 crore from export of plantation crops, the contribution of south India from export of these commodities stand at a whopping Rs 3,490 crore. A study conducted by the United Planters Association of India (Upasi) on plantation crops in south India, shows that this part of the country accounts for over 25 per cent of the country's tea production and practically 100 per cent of the output of coffee, rubber and cardamom (small).

Pepper bourse hikes TGF to Rs 50-lakh

The lingering crisis in the pepper market over guaranteeing domestic contracts are likely to blow over soon with the Indian Pepper and Spices' TradeAssociation (IPSTA), which runs black pepper futures contracts here, has conceded to the Forward Markets Commission's (FMC) demand to raise the corpus of the proposed trade guarantee fund (TGF) to Rs 50 lakh.

ACE witnesses good futures trend

With the fear of a severe draught looming large over the state, the bulls went on the rampage in the castor markets. The September castorseed futures traded at the Ahmedabad Commodity Exchange (ACE) soared to Rs 1,910 per quintal due to nervous short-covering. The futures trading was halted at ACE for the couple of days due to daily circuit and wild price swing.

Gold imports likely to improve

Despite weak consumer demand and fall in the global gold prices, gold imports of the country is likely to increase in the coming months thanks to cheaper financing by way of the gold loans offered by the MMTC, PEC and others, said informed sources. The importers could get gold from the noddle agencies around 5.50-6 per cent per annum. The tenure of the loan is180 days, hence an importer who had borrowed the money could rotate it around 24-36 per annum, making arbitrage profit of 20-30 per cent.

Ferro chrome demand seen going up

With the expected rise in world production of stainless steel in the next four years, demand for ferro chrome is bound to increase which may push up its prices too. At a recent meeting of International Chromium Development Association (ICDA) held at St Petersburg in Russia, Metal Bulletin Research (MBR) pointed out that third quarter prices of ferro chrome may be pushed up by four to five cents per lb.

Steady trend in crude oil products

Crude oil prices continued to increase in July 1999. Product prices were significantly higher than crude oil prices in July 1999. In June 1999, refinery crude runs in the OECD countries increased by 5,00,000 bpd over those in May. However, the refinery crude runs in the OECD countries in June 1999 were 3 per cent lower than those during the corresponding period in 1998.

Importscheck float glass price spiral

Float glass industry blames its losses on imports by dealers. Some leading glass dealers in Chennai however refute this and say that imports are too limited to have an impact on the bottom lines of big glass companies. During April-June, 1999, while the average per day consumption of indigenous float and sheet glass was 1,135 tonnes, that of the imported glass sales were around 35 tonnes only.

90 textile units closed shutters in 98-99

During the last fiscal, 1998-99, as many as 90 textile units spread all over the country had downed their shutters due to sickness in the organised sector, apart from the innumerable closures in the unorganised and small scale sector. This was noted by the GL Moondra, president of the Eastern India Textile Mills Association at the 65th annual general meeting of the association. Moondra said that the number of closed units in the country increased from 223 at the end of April 1998 to 313 as on March 31, this year.

Leatherexports decline by 10%

Exports of various types of goat, sheep, cow and buffalo leathers which were to the tune of $ 295.83 million in 1997-98 declined by 10.35 per cent to $ 265.20 million in 1998-99. The step-motherly treatment meted out to the leather sector by CLE is considered to be the main cause for its downward tendency.