Spot Jeera Witnesses Negligible Trade amid Lack of Big Buys; Futures Market Shut

Mumbai (Commodities Control) - Spot jeera prices were quoted steady amid muted trade across major spot commodities on account of GuruNanak Jayanti due to which most of the markets were shut today.

Meanwhile, the spice dropped Rs 55 per 20 Kgs at Unjha mandi last week, while it was steady at Rajkot mandi. Futures market is shut today. The contracts ended mixed on Friday, after witnessing a sharp decline on Thursday.

The most-active December contract of jeera hit a six-week low of 13,760 rupees per 100 kg on NCDEX on Thursday, due to sluggish demand from bulk buyers. Analysts forecast a weak outlook for jeera because of fall in demand from bulk buyers due to rising cases of COVID-19 across the country.

Today Unjha mandi reported arrivals of 12,000 bags vs 13,000 bags of jeera in the last session. Meanwhile all the jeera varieties were quoted steady here. Rough variety of Jeera was quoted at Rs. 2195-2265 per 20 kg. NCDEX Jeera was priced at Rs. 2310-2415 per 20 kg. Bombay Bold was quoted at Rs. 2575-2665 per 20 kg and Best quality was quoted at Rs 2515-2565.

In Rajkot, jeera varieties were quoted unchanged as well. Europe Quality was quoted at Rs. 2530-2600, Singapore and Discolour were priced unchanged at Rs. 2440-2540 and Rs. 2390-2440 respectively. Super quality was quoted at Rs. 2650-2700, Europe-Mundra at Rs. 2880-2900 and Singapore-Mundra at Rs. 2790-2800 per 20 kg. All the three varieties were priced unchanged. The mandi reported steady arrivals of 800 bags unchanged since last week.

Meanwhile prices of spices including coriander, turmeric and cumin have fallen 5% to 7% in the past month because of a bigger harvest and weak export demand.

On NCDEX, cumin futures gave up 4.65% to Rs 13,755 per quintal.

Export demand is down 10% since September largely due to concerns of pesticide residue, high moisture content and competition from Ukraine and Syria, according to the Federation of India Spices Stakeholders.

Spice Millers observe that currently buyers have been making limited purchases, unlike previous years when they bought inventories for six to eight months or for the entire year.