A temporary freeze on wheat and rice future trading to control rising prices of essential commodities has failed to serve the purpose, as trading has begun in other agricultural products such as zeera, red chilli and even black pepper whose market prices have registered a jump.
Though trading of wheat has decreased from around Rs 20 crore in January-February at Ludhiana Stock Exchange (LSE) securities to nearly Rs 2 crore in March-April 18, trading of zeera increased from Rs 23.08 crore in January-February to a whopping Rs 95.69 crore from March-April 18.
In addition, even trading in red chilli has registered a slight increase — from Rs 9.95 crore in January-February to Rs 10.41 crore from March to mid-April.
The trade volumes are from LSE, region’s only stock exchange.
Meanwhile, LSE commodity trading in-charge Dinesh Joshi said, “The ban on wheat and rice is temporary, as the government is awaiting the report of the committee on the issue. For the time being, only orders booked before February 28 are being traded and this will continue for another month. In case of wheat and rice, there was not much impact as the trading stopped altogether from first week of March.”
Joshi added, “Banning futures of one or two products will not serve the purpose. Rather, the point where hoarding is happening needs to be checked. The consumer has to invest in one or the other product, and hence he has switched from wheat to other agri-products.”
At the wholesale market, Newsline found that prices of zeera have increased from Rs 125-130 a kg to Rs 160-170 a kg from March onwards.
Balwant Rai, of a departmental store, Maniram Balwant Rai in Ludhiana, said, “We are surprised to see the way the price of zeera has gone up. Same is the case with dry red chilli, which is now nearly Rs 65 a kg as against Rs 58-60 a kg in early March. As the trading in this sector is increasing gradually, the price hike is also gradual. We are expecting further hike.”
Meanwhile, trading of turmeric, which was Rs 3.09 crore in January and February collectively, has shot up to Rs 7.43 crore from March till mid April. But prices in this segment are still stable, revealed the wholesalers.