'Edible oil price may touch new high this calendar year'

Rajkot/Ahmedabad, July 11 Edible oil price may touch a new high this calendar year, the Saurashtra Oil Millers Association (SOMA) said on Monday.

The groundnut 16 liter tin price has touched to Rs 2,750 and cotton seed oil is being quoted at Rs 2,700. The present price rise is because there is no stock of groundnut with farmers, claimed SOMA.

Even the state government has hardly 1.50 lakh ton groundnut stock, even if the entire stock is offloaded in the market, it can't increase the volume of groundnut oil production that can stabilise the market, according to traders.

For consumers it is going to be a tough year as prices of edible oils will continue to surge the entire year. "There is no hope of pirces falling in November, when the groundnut new stock arrives, because sowing has been comparatively low this year," said Kishorbhai Viradiya, president of SOMA.

Kishorbhai's claim of less sowing is reflected in the state agriculture department's weekly sowing data. Till July 4 the groundnut sowing was on 10 lakh hectares and cotton sowing was on 15 lakh hectares.

The SOMA president further said that in normal situation by June 30 groundnut sowing used to be on 14 lakh hectares, against that this time it is on 10 lakh hectares. His prediction is that this time sowing of groundnut will be on 15 lakh hectares, against 20 lakh hectares last year. There will be a shortfall of production.

On the other hand, due to very good prices of cotton in the last season, farmers have shifted from groundnut to cotton. If cotton sowing area increases it will have an effect on the groundnut and oil production, observes Viradiya.

Kishorbhai's fear is that there is all possibility that the demand for raw groundnut from overseas markets will remain high and this can fuel domestic oil prices post November too because of which there is no chance of prices falling this year.