June 7: With the advent of cold storages, jaggery traders in the Anakapally hope that the market, considered to be the largest in Asia, could still regain some of its lost glory.Though the 120 truck loads, mainly from Tata Nagar in Bihar, kept in these cold-storages may appear meagre, the move is highly significant for the local trade.The 350 strong trading community in Anakapally is keenly watching the situation arising out of the new development. "If the experience is good and these outstation traders are able to manipulate the price to their advantage in the coming season, we expect the Anakapally market to revive manifold in future", says Butchi Raju of Immidisetti Ramakrishnaiah & Sons, one of the largest export-traders in the town. Anakapally is approximately 40 kms away from Vizag.While traditionally the Anakapally trader has been using wooden attics to store stock jaggery, harder than other varieties, any favourbale result from the use of cold-storages will change the trade forever in thedays to come.Apart from the emergence of local markets in neighbouring states like Karnataka, a substantial increase in sugar mill capacity with three of them cropping up within the vicinity of Anakapally itself has led to a diversion of cane to sugar manufacturing over the years.This has resulted in Anakapally losing its dominant position in the jaggery trade though it continues to be one of the largest in the country with a trade of 40,000 lumps, next only to Hapur in Haryana every day. The market has an annual turnover of Rs 50 crore with 250 to 300 traders being registered with the Anakapally Merchants Association. However, only 100 of them are active today. However, many of them are expected to return to the market yard if the experience of the outstation traders turns out to be good.That is perhaps one of the reasons why the market which began the season on a very dull note with arrivals plummeting to record levels perked up towards the end of April and beginning May. It is now expected tolevel with last season's figure of 43 lakh lumps.While buying for stocking was done by mid-April itself in anticipation of lesser arrivals during the remaining season, the new sentiment and fresh arrivals from Kirlampudi and the Bobbili areas apart from diversion of cane to jaggery at attractive prices improved the supply position with prices taking a beating.Though a panic situation had prevailed till the first week of May as a result, good demand from Orissa and in smaller quantities from Bihar, Telangana and Pune areas for Anakapally jaggery pepped up the sentiment and prices have been steady for the past few days with the average price ruling well above Rs 80 per lump of ten kgs. Enquiries from the distillery sector were good.
