Slight softening in the prices of spices amid high prices of food items

16-Jul-2024 03:36 PM

New Delhi. At a time when the prices of imported food products like grains, pulses and vegetables are rising and rising, a slight fall in the prices of spices is expected to provide some relief to the common consumers.

During the last two months, the prices of important spices like coriander, red chilli, cumin and turmeric have fallen by 2 to 10 percent.

Considering the very high prices, this fall seems minor, but it can be satisfying that its prices did not rise like other food items. 

According to trade analysts, the prices of spices had already risen to a very high level, due to which its domestic and export demand started getting affected.

The interesting fact is that there is a good stock of the above four spices in the country, but still there was an atmosphere of rise and rise in prices because the producers and stockists were not willing to sell their goods at low prices.

Ultimately, when its demand started weakening, there was a slight softening in the prices as well. Apart from this, due to good monsoon rains in major producing states, sowing of red chilli and turmeric is expected to increase. 

Major producing states of red chilli and turmeric include Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh etc. All these states are receiving good rains of south-west monsoon this time.

As far as cumin and coriander are concerned, its sowing is done during October-November in the Rabi season.

Gujarat and Rajasthan are its major producing states, while coriander is also produced on a large scale in Madhya Pradesh. 

By the way, instead of softening, some other spices including black pepper and cardamom are witnessing some increase in price.

When the festive season starts from next month, then there is a possibility of increase in domestic demand and consumption of spices.