Basmati arrival starts in Haryana grain markets as prices go up

KARNAL: Arrival of paddy in the mandis of the northern districts of Haryana has begun with harvesting of the early varieties has started.

Prices of Basmati’s largelysown early variety, Pusa Basmati 1509, is being procured between Rs 2,500 and Rs 2,650 per quintal with the traders showing interest in procurement following a surge in demand of long-grained rice in the international market.

According to farmers, this year, the prices have improved as compared to last year but Rs 2,500 per quintal is still not enough because they are getting around Rs 10,000 less per acre as the yield was sold over Rs 3,000 per quintal in 2019.

“I sold my produce of two acre at Rs 2,575 per quintal against Rs 2,100 of last year. This is an improvement than last year but the prices are still not remunerative and they should be above Rs 3,000 as the input cost has also increased due rise in diesel prices and labour cost,” said farmer Madan Lal at Ladwa grain market in Kurukshetra.

“As of now, the moisture content is higher and most crop is harvested by combine harvesters. We think the prices will easily increase to over Rs 3,000 when the crop will be harvested manually,” said commission agent Naresh Kumar, at Ladwa grain market.

Most of the paddy is coming in from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh as harvesting in Haryana has just started.

“There are no restrictions on early transplantation in UP so the farmers there grow early varieties to empty their fields for vegetables. But this may create problems for Haryana farmers as those from UP won’t hesitate to sell their produce at any available price with there being no mandis in their state,” said another commission agent Praveen Kumar, of Niolkheri.

The Haryana government has announced to advance procurement of Parmal varieties to September 25 from October 1.

This will help farmers who have grown early varieties.

As per the figures of the All India Rice Exporters Association, the country’s export of basmati rice has improved to 46,31,531 MT in 2020-21 from 44,54,656 MT in 2019-20.

However, traders are expecting that the prices of basmati varieties to remain good this year.