iGrain India - New Delhi. Although the arrival of new summer urad has started in states like Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and the stock of urad of Rabi season is left in Andhra Pradesh, but due to special reasons, it is not being supplied properly in the domestic market.
During the summer or zaid season, urad is cultivated in a small area. During the current year, the sowing area of urad in the zaid season was around 3.50 lakh hectares, which is more than last year's area of 3.25 lakh hectares.
The government has fixed the minimum support price of urad at Rs 6950 per quintal, whereas its open market price is above Rs 9000 per quintal.
The price of urad in Rajkot market of Gujarat reached Rs 9500-9700 per quintal and in Guntur market of Andhra Pradesh it reached Rs 10,050 per quintal.
Good quality urad is arriving in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and farmers are reluctant to sell it at a lower price. There is a good demand from dal millers.
Farmers of Andhra Pradesh are also holding the stock of urad. Due to this, there is no proper supply of urad in various markets and there is an atmosphere of bullishness in the prices.
The sowing of urad during Kharif is going to start soon and this time its area is expected to increase because on one hand its market price is quite high and secondly, monsoon rains are also expected to be good.
But the harvesting of the new crop will start after four months and till then the supply and availability in the domestic sector will depend on imports from Myanmar.
It is being imported regularly from there, so there is no possibility of further unexpected increase in prices, but there is also no notion of much softening in it.
The purchase of urad at very high prices may get stuck and its business may be affected. The Union Agriculture Ministry has set a target of production of 30.50 lakh tonnes of urad for the entire season of 2024-25.