Weekly: Chana Slips Third Straight Week On Lackluster Demand

MUMBAI (Commoditiescontrol) - Chana (chickpea) dropped third straight week in the domestic market, whereas tur was among the major looser with marginal gain witnessed in matar (field pea/white pea) as lower level buying helped positive movement with almost flat tone in masoor (lentil), moong (green gram) and urad (black gram).

Chana (Rajasthan Origin - Delhi) - Chana continued to exhibit bearish tone in the spot markets due to lackluster demand amid rising supply of new crop from Australia led by higher sowing in the country. Chana fell as much as 5.7 percent this week due to slow buying by millers due to poor off take in processed chana. Retail demand has been adversely affected after demonetizations as buying power of consumers has lowered amid liquidity crunch. Further around 285 container (24 metric tonne each), or 6,840 metric tonnes of chana have arrived at Mumbai port this week has weighed on market sentiments.

Further good pace of rabi sowing progress also dented sentiments during the week. According to agriculture ministry chana acreage as on November 24 stood at 66.33 lakh hectares, up from 64.57 lakh hectares same period a year ago (Rabi Chana Sowing). Sharp fall in chana price unlikely due to poor domestic arrivals. On the contrary the current supply-demand seems to be not balance as chana stocks in the country is poor and supply from Australia is likely to consumed and may not put any major impact at least in the near term. The country requires more than 5 lakh tones of stock for monthly domestic consumption. According to market sources Indian importers so far contracted 7-8 lakh tones from Australia for January commitment.

Tur (Lemon-Mumbai) - Tur fell as much as 6.4% last week due to lackluster demand from millers amid dull demand for processed tur from retailers due to liquidity crunch. Further processed tur consumption usually declines during winter due abundant availability of vegetables which is used as substitute for processed tur. Moreover new tur supply from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka has pressured prices. Actually buyers are sidelined as they believe supply to rise ahead amid projection of bumper crop this season. According to government country is going to harvest record over 30 lakh tonnes tur crop and the peak season start from January onwards. Meanwhile Mumbai port received 777 container of tur from various origins has also exerted pressure on the commodity. Tur may trade flat with negative bias due to record crop, availability of substitute (vegetables), poor retail demand due to cash crunch.

Matar (White-Canada) - Matar performed positive last week amid some good demand at the lower levels. Canadian white matar gained 1.6% during the week. Since importers cost is higher than current market price they are reluctant sellers at lower levels supported matar. But any major upside is limited due to continuous flow from Canada and Russia along with other origins. Canada crop is expected better than forecast due to expectations of better production in Saskatchewan province. Sowing of matar is making good progress and nearly 7.92 lakh hectares has been sown, sharply up from 4.47 lakh hectares previous year (Rabi Matar Sowing).

Moong, masoor and urad however traded flat during the last week in the absence of any major activity as currency demonetisation hurts business volume. No major movement expected this week in these commodity as prices are around lower level supported by government agencies procurement scheme at MSP in moong and urad.

Date	Urad	Chana	Masoor	Moong	Tur	Matar
26-Nov-16	7500	9800	5500	4800	5800	2301
25-Nov-16	7500	No Arrival	5500	4800	5800	2301
24-Nov-16	7500	No Arrival	5500	4800	5800	2301
23-Nov-16	7500	No Arrival	5500	4800	5850	2311
22-Nov-16	7500	No Arrival	5500	4800	5800	2271
21-Nov-16	7500	10400	5500	4800	5950	2241
19-Nov-16	7500	10400	5500	4800	6200	2261

Note: Rates In Rs/100Kg

(By Commoditiescontrol Bureau; +91-22-40015533)