NCDEX demands lifting ban on tur, urad futures

NEW DELHI: Commodity bourse NCDEX today demanded lifting of a decadelong ban on tur and urad futures trading as it welcomed the government's move to remove export curbs on all kinds of pulses in the interest of farmers.

Encouraging pulses export is a "path breaking" move at a time when their prices are ruling below the minimum suport price (MSP), the exchange said in a statement.

"This is also the most appropriate time for relaunching futures trading in pulses like tur and urad...," NCDEX said in a statement.

The re-launch of pulses futures will provide a price indicator and a hedging tool for entire pulses value chain including farmers, it said.

NCDEX Managing Director and CEO Samir Shah said that the recent re-launch of chana futures on the NCDEX platform has provided benchmark prices to the industry.

"Re-launch of tur and urad futures will not only help in providing advance price signals to millions of farmers but also help improve their realisations," he added.

Since there has been high price volatility in some pulses since July 2017, NCDEX said futures trading platform is an effective hedging and risk management tool for farmers.

"Various studies and surveys done by independent as well as government agencies have proved that banning the futures contracts have never been beneficial to the market at large," it added. The government on Thursday removed export restrictions on all varieties of pulses in a bid to shore up domestic prices which have fallen sharply because of abundant supplies. Local production of pulses had risen to a record 22.95 million tonnes last year on encouragement from the government, but the output is still short of the annual demand.