Jeera prices slide from Rs 62,000 to Rs 50,000 per quintal in 7 days

The crash comes despite the arrivals in Unjha APMC being 1,800 to 2,000 bags, each containing 55 kg of jeera. In all, between 990 quintal and 1,100 quintal of jeera arrived at the APMC on Friday.

Sitaram Patel, a leading cumin seeds trader in Unjha APMC, said, “It is true that arrivals are negligible since the 2022-23 marketing season of jeera is well past its peak. However, there is neither demand from domestic players nor are overseas buyers active. On the other hand, there are expectations that farmers will increase their jeera acreage, which can bring down prices in 2023-24 marketing season. Therefore, aggregators who had purchased jeera at the rate of Rs 665 per kg (100 kg make a quintal) from farmers are selling it at Rs 450 per kg.”

The sudden slide in the market price of jeera comes at the time of the beginning of the 2023 Rabi sowing season. Farmers in Gujarat start sowing jeera in late October and continue through November and harvest it between February and March. April to June is consider the peak jeera marketing season. However, Friday’s price is more than double when compared to the corresponding period last year. On October 31, 2022, the price in Unjha APMC was between Rs 19,755 and Rs 24,105.

Patel said that farmers’ sowing decisions are unlikely to be affected by the recent volatility in the market price. “Even if farmers realise market price in the range of Rs 25000 to Rs 30,000, sowing jeera makes sense for them as it will still offer higher overall returns than other crops,” said Patel.
After hovering at around Rs 18,000 per quintal in the 2020-21 season, jeera price had rallied to the-unprecedented rate of Rs 25,000 per quintal on December 2, 2022. By June 19, 2023, the price doubled to Rs 50,000 per quintal before going on to touch Rs 65,000 in subsequent weeks.

Asked if the demand of jeera as seed for new sowing season is a factor, Patel said, “Seed quality jeera has already been purchased by seed dealers during the peak season and hence, though farmers might be purchasing seeds from agricultural input dealers now, the demand is not big enough to have any significant bearing on the price of jeera in the open market.”