Delayed harvest and reduced output are likely to take ginger prices beyond Rs 100 per kg in the coming days, traders said. Prices have climbed up 20-30% in the past few days, with best quality dry ginger retailing at Rs 95 per kg in the terminal market of Kochi. Ordinary dry ginger is being quoted at Rs 65-80 per kg, compared to Rs 45-60 few weeks back, Krishnakumar B, a leading ginger trader at Kochi market, said.
He expects the price to breach the Rs 100-mark in the short-term and then decrease with crop arrivals in the north-eastern region. ?We can assess the situation only after ginger from the north-eastern region comes to the market in January,? he said. Trading enquiries from the US market is also driving up the market, he added. ?There are reports of US authorities detecting pesticide residue in Chinese ginger and this is likely to favour India,? Krishnakumar said.
Supply is low in the spot market, with trading done with mostly old stocks, ML Parekh said. Arrival has plunged to less than 350 bags per day, he added. Usually the fresh crop arrives in full swing to the market by November. Parekh says that traditional ginger production areas in Kerala have stopped farming, and traders depend on other states for ginger.
Heavy rains and crop shortage are prompting farmers to hold back harvesting, Mohanan, a trader from the Wayanad market, told FE. He expects the crop to be shorter by 30-40% compared to last year, with a significant decline in the sowing area. The ginger farming area has also come down in Kerala to almost half, following a slump in price in the last two years.