July 2, 2020
Witnessing the recent demand in mustard oil, traders trying to benefit themselves by selling contaminated mustard oil to the consumers to gain quick money.
Mustard seed prices have hiked tremendously by 26 per cent since last 4 months due to short supply. The rising household demand for mustard oil as an immunity booster believed to help individuals fight coronavirus (Covid-19) has triggered the demand.
At Alwar Mandi in Rajasthan, rape/mustard seed prices surpassed the benchmark Rs. 5,000 a quintal to trade at Rs. 5,025 recently, up 25.6 per cent from about Rs. 4,000 a quintal on April 1. In the Jaipur (Rajasthan) mandi, rape/mustard seed prices shot up by 24 per cent to trade at Rs. 5,028 a quintal from Rs. 4,050 on April 1.
Though the spurt in sudden increase of prices has brought much joy to farmers and stockists, consumers are the sufferers having to pay more that was it is legal. To add to the rise in price, the consumers are getting contaminated oil even if they paying more for the original one. Edible oil producers are blending/mixing cheap palm oil with costly mustard oil to make a quick buck through unethical means. Many traders are also known to mix chemicals in bulk containers to create a fragrance like the original mustard oil. All this means that consumption of mustard oil stands lopsided to the production of mustard seed production in the country.
“Rape/mustard seed prices have jumped by over 25 per cent the past four months due to short supply. India’s mustard seed output was lower this year but demand for mustard oil shot up due to sudden increase in household consumption. While rape/mustard oil is found to be very useful in supporting the immune system, its consumption has multiplied since the outbreak of Covid-19 in India. With no stock left with farmers and new season crop arrivals 6-8 months away, mustard prices are likely to remain firm throughout this year,” said Vijay Data, Managing Director, Vijay Solvex.
The industry sees India’s total rape/mustard seed output at 7.6 million tons this year, nearly 25 per cent lower than last year, the Ministry of Agriculture in its third advanced estimated projected total output at 8.7 million tons for the recently ended Rabi harvesting season, from 9.2 million tons in the same season in yester year.
“Oilseed farmers have not been supported for the past 20-25 years. All government policies favoured only consumers. Now, the time has come to support farmers and this would be possible only after increasing import duty on all edible oils including crude palm oil (CPO). The increase in the minimum support price (MSP) of oilseeds should run parallel to the import duty hike to prevent India to become a dumping ground,” said Atul Chaturvedi, President, Solvent Extractors’ Association of India in a webinar organised by Agribazar, the online agri commodities selling platform.
Meanwhile, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and Haryana State Cooperative Supply & Marketing Federation (HAFED) have jointly procured around 1.3 million tons of mustard seed this year, in addition to 150,000 tons of carry-over stocks they held cumulatively last year.
“India’s mustard seed output has been stagnant over the past 15 years. Now, the government has invited farmers in the north eastern states to cultivate oilseeds which will certainly help India improve edible oil production and reduce dependence on imports,” informed the Additional Managing Director of NAFED.
Presently, India imports approx 15 million tons of edible oils including CPO, RBD (refined, bleached and deodorized) palmolein, sunflower oil and soybean oil from various countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Argentina among others to meet its annual demand of 25 million tons.