Sweet fight : Nowrangapur jaggery gives a tough time to Anakapalle
By Newsmeter Network Published on 28 Sep 2019 4:25 PM GMT
Visakhapatnam: The Anakapalle jaggery market in Vizag district is facing stiff competition from the jaggery makers of Nowrangpur in Odisha and also parts of Maharashtra. The Anakapalle jaggery market, which is the second-largest market in India, has been facing a series of challenges for its survival.
With demand from buyers in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand coming down, the Anakapalle jaggery market is burdened with stocks in the cold storage. In the current season, of the over 7,300 tonnes, only 4,200 tonnes have been offloaded to date. In last year also of the 9,000 tonnes of jaggery lumps, 8,000 tonnes were sold.
The Nowrangpur jaggery market in Odisha has emerged as a strong competitor to Anakapalle Jaggery market. This has led to floppy demand for the stocks at Anakapalle, says a trader Korukonda Butchiraju.
The Nowrangpur in Odisha is offering the black variety at Rs 290 per 10 kg while the black variety of Anakapalle jaggery cost around Rs 330 per 10 kgs. Similarly, the Maharashtra market is supplying the best quality jaggery at Rs 340 per 10 kgs. But the best quality of Anakapalle jaggery is around Rs 370 per 10 kgs. The buyers in other states are preferring the Odisha and Maharashtra jaggery instead of Anakapalle jaggery, Butchiraju added.
Anakapalle jaggery is the best jaggery in the country in terms of taste and flavour as per traders.
Another trader, K Sharath Kumar, said that they have until October to sell their storage stock as the next jaggery season will commence in November. If we failed to sell our stock by October, we would find it difficult to invest in fresh inventory, he added.
With the festival season (Dasara and Diwali) around the corner, we are hopeful that the demand for Anakapalle jaggery may pick up. Over Rs10 crore value of the jaggery at cold storage due to lack of the demand, the traders said.
The jaggery makers are expecting that the prices of the deluxe quality jaggery will increase in the coming days. Experts in the trade attributed that if the jaggery prices discouraging to farmers, the production will come down in the coming years.
