Commodity Outlook – Bengal Gram (Chana)

agribazaar July 30, 2020

Sowing period: September to November
Harvesting period: March to April
Crop season: Rabi

Key growing locations:

Madhya Pradesh – Dewas, Khargone, Sehore, Ujjain, Vidisha
Maharashtra – Amarawati, Akola, Vashim, Wardha, Latur
Gujarat – Surat, Dahod, Rajkot, Amreli, Junagarh
Uttar Pradesh – Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Lalitpur
Karnataka – Gadag, Raichur, Gulbarga, Bidar, Dharwad
Rajasthan – Tonk, Kota, Baran, Jhalawar, Ajmer
Telangana – Adilabad, Warangal

Production trend and Stock position:

According to Ministry of Agriculture, the sowing acreage of overall Pulses as on July 24, 2020 was 99.71 lakh hectares (lh) up by 25.74 percent compared to 79.30 lh during the corresponding period.
As per the Ministry of Agriculture third advance estimate released on May 15, 2020, Bengal gram production was 9.94 Mn MT compared to previous year which was 10.90 Mn MT, up by 9.66 percent.
NAFED has procured around 21.43 lakh MT Bengal gram so far against the target of 22.5 lakh MT this season as per the data released on July 24, 2020.
Stock positions of Bengal gram were up by 13.10 percent held at National Commodity Clearing Limited (NCCL) approved warehouses at Bikaner, Jaipur and Akola locations. The stocks held as on July 29, 2020 was 72,270 MT compared to 63,899 MT as on July 06, 2020.

Note: July Mandi arrivals are for the period: 1 – 29 July 2020

Note: Markets currently are in Contango where the Futures market prices are higher than the Spot market prices along with the Bikaner monthly mandi arrivals in MT.

Market commentary: Price outlook

The Government had increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Bengal gram by 5.52 percent to Rs. 4,875 per quintal for Rabi marketing year (MY) 2020-21 compared to Rs. 4,620 in 2019-20.
Overall Bengal Gram prices are likely to trade steady to slightly weak in the immediate / short term as currently Bengal gram is trading much below the MSP.
Despite the beginning of the festive season, there has been no respite, as it was to give some needed support that would have increased the demand for the commodity and a slight price rise in the coming weeks.