Sesame seed rates

The price mentioned here is of natural sesame seeds, unprocessed and unpacked. As of today i.e on 30.01.10 the price is between,
USD $1135 - USD $1319 per ton in India.

Sugar, food grains, eggs, medicines driving inflation: RBI

The current phase of inflation in India is driven by increase in prices of a few commodities such as sugar, oil cakes, food grains, eggs, meat, fish and drugs and medicines, the Reserve Bank said on Thursday.

Since the above commodities have a combined weight of 14.8 per cent in overall wholesale price index (WPI), it explains a significant part of the inflation during recent months, the RBI said in its Third Quarter Review of Macroeconomic and Monetary Developments for this fiscal (FY 10).

However, the contribution of these key drivers has come down in December 2009, indicating early signs of inflation getting generalised, the apex bank said.

Commodities with zero or negative inflation, however, had an aggregate weight of 50.7 per cent in the WPI, it said.

In terms of contribution to overall inflation by the major groups, primary articles group continues to drive the overall WPI inflation, besides the manufactured food products.

"The contribution of non-food manufactured products group, which waned during the declining phase of inflation, has also started to increase in recent months," the RBI said.

On the fuel group, it said that its contribution which was significantly negative since January 2009, has now shown a reversal of trend in recent months "and now contributes positively to overall inflation."

Natural sesame seeds market price

28.01.10

Market price for natural sesame seeds today in India were between Rs.53.25- Rs.61.55.
$1 USD = Rs.46.28 INR.

Palm oil prices likely to recover at weaker pace

KUALA LUMPUR: Palm oil prices, which have lost about 8% so far this year, are expected to grow at a weaker pace as rival soyoil eats into the vegetable oil market following a bumper US and South American soybean crop.

Palm oil, a reddish brown oil, is used in a variety of products ranging from ice-cream and soap powder to biofuels.

It is the world’s most traded vegetable oil, with research group Oilworld forecasting global palm oil consumption at 47.45 million tonnes for the marketing year beginning October 2009 compared to soybean oil demand at 37.71 million tonnes.

Benchmark crude palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange hit an all-time record of 4,486 ringgit in early March 2008 and then tumbled to a low of 1,331 ringgit in October the same year at the height of the financial crisis. It is now trading 44% below record levels.

Indonesia, the world’s top palm oil producer, has projected output in 2010 to reach 23 million tonnes, up from 21 million tonnes last year.

Malaysia, the world’s No. 2 palmoil producer, may see production increase by 3.4%, to 18.1 million tonnes this year, on the weaker impact of the El Nino weather condition, which usually brings drier weather.

Malaysia’s exports gained 2.9% to 15.87 million tonnes last year against 15.41 million in 2008. China is Malaysia’s largest palm oil buyer, followed by European Union, Pakistan and India.

Nearly 70% of Indonesia’s palm oil sold to overseas market, mainly India and China. Indonesia exports more crude palm oil whereas rival Malaysia ships out mostly higher-value products to support its extensive refinery business.

Major plantation firms producing and selling palm oil include Malaysia’s Sime Darby and IOI Corp as well as Singapore-listed Wilmar International.

Pure plantation players include Malaysia’s IJM Plantations and Genting Plantations as well as Indonesia’s London Sumatra and Astra Agro Lestari.

A free trade agreement between China and the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations will see China’s import tariffs for palm oil cut to zero and 5% by January 2018 from eight and 9%.

Natural Sesame Seeds market rate

27.01.10
Natural sesame seeds rate in India were between Rs.58.00 - Rs.60.25 per kg.

Commexes turnover surges 55%

Commodity exchanges started the year 2010 on a good note with total turnover surging by 55.24% to Rs 3,64,893 crore in the first
fortnight of the current month.

The exchanges had registered a total turnover of Rs 2,35,048 crore in the year-ago period. MCX clocked the highest turnover of Rs 2,86,953 crore (till January 15) among 23 commodity exchanges, the data released by commodity market regulator forward markets commission (FMC) showed.

While the turnover of leading agri-commodity bourse NCDEX stood at Rs 46,648 crore, Ahmedabad-based NMCE made a business of Rs 8,884 crore during the period. New entrant ICEX generated a turnover of Rs 18,927 crore in the period.

Higher turnover came from bullion, energy and few farm commodities such as guarseed, soy oil and chana, FMC said. The total business from agri-commodities more than doubled to Rs 58,857 crore, while that from bullion rose by 16.31% to Rs 1,55,959 crore till January 15.

Turnover from other commodities such as energy also more than doubled to Rs 1,50,077 crore in the review period, it said. Commodity exchanges had closed the year 2009 with record turnover of Rs 70,90,442 crore, up by 40.85% from Rs 50,33,872 crore in the previous year.

Last year, the average turnover in a fortnight has stood at Rs 2,95,435 crore.

Commodities hold potential as economies recover

While last year witnessed the return of equity in a big way, in terms of performance, commodities as an asset class was not too far behind too. Commodity markets witnessed a strong rally in 2009. Agri commodities , base metals, precious metals and crude oil saw sharp rise in prices.

Supply-related issues on account of below-average monsoons hiked the prices of agri commodities very sharply. Increased industrial activity backed by hopes of economic recovery helped the prices of base metals and oil move upwards. The weakness of the dollar turned out to be a boon for gold which gave phenomenal returns last year. Would commodities continue their upmove in 2010?

Most analysts predict that commodity markets should present attractive opportunities this year as supply-related issues in agri commodities, and demand for metals and oil will drive prices higher. Here are some factors that will affect the price movements of different commodities.

Agri commodities' prices have been on a continuous rise on account of shortages in food across the world. In India, bad monsoons led to supply shortages of commodities such as pulses , cereals, sugar etc and the situation was further aggravated by distributionrelated issues.

As a result, food inflation rose to a high of 20 percent in December 2009, causing anxiety to the government which is now taking steps to improve the situation. For example, sugar prices have touched new highs the world-over and production has dipped quite substantially .

In order to control speculative price movements, futures trading in sugar have been banned until September 2010.

The strong demand and limited supply of agri commodities is expected to keep the prices on the higher side this year too.

Commodities hold potential as economies recover

While last year witnessed the return of equity in a big way, in terms of performance, commodities as an asset class was not too far behind too. Commodity markets witnessed a strong rally in 2009. Agri commodities , base metals, precious metals and crude oil saw sharp rise in prices.

Supply-related issues on account of below-average monsoons hiked the prices of agri commodities very sharply. Increased industrial activity backed by hopes of economic recovery helped the prices of base metals and oil move upwards. The weakness of the dollar turned out to be a boon for gold which gave phenomenal returns last year. Would commodities continue their upmove in 2010?

Most analysts predict that commodity markets should present attractive opportunities this year as supply-related issues in agri commodities, and demand for metals and oil will drive prices higher. Here are some factors that will affect the price movements of different commodities.

Agri commodities' prices have been on a continuous rise on account of shortages in food across the world. In India, bad monsoons led to supply shortages of commodities such as pulses , cereals, sugar etc and the situation was further aggravated by distributionrelated issues.

As a result, food inflation rose to a high of 20 percent in December 2009, causing anxiety to the government which is now taking steps to improve the situation. For example, sugar prices have touched new highs the world-over and production has dipped quite substantially .

In order to control speculative price movements, futures trading in sugar have been banned until September 2010.

The strong demand and limited supply of agri commodities is expected to keep the prices on the higher side this year too.

Open market Natural sesame Prices

23.01.10
Today's rate for natural sesame in open market stands between Rs.49.90 - Rs.63.00.

Newsletter

Farm futures trading may make strong comeback

Trading in farm futures is set to make a robust comeback after a steady fall over the previous two fiscals, according to regulatory data on turnover of four national level commodity bourses and 19 regional ones. The main reason for the growth is due to the relisting of four out of eight agri commodities that were banned between FY07 and FY09.

While total turnover in the first nine months of the current fiscal grew by close to 50% at Rs 55.26 lakh crore from the corresponding period last fiscal, cumulative turnover of agri commodities grew by 104.45% to Rs 9.02 lakh crore.

Turnover of farm futures trading fell steadily from Rs 13 lakh crore in fiscal ‘07 (April-March) to barely Rs 6 lakh crore in FY09 because of the delisting of eight commodities — wheat, rice, tur, urad, potato, soya oil, rubber and chana — over the period, said BC Khatua, chairman of Forward Markets Commission, which regulates commodity futures trading in the country. The commodities were delisted, following the government concerns over the impact of futures trading on food price inflation. However, the relisting of four banned commodities — chana, potato, soya oil and rubber — in January 2009 rejuvenated interest in this segment of futures trading.

A futures transaction allows the sale and purchase of a commodity at a predetermined rate for delivery at a future date. For hedgers, futures offer an effective means of hedging, against price risk and volatility by transferring their risk on to speculators, who take a contrarian position (to the hedgers) based on information such as crop supply-demand, etc.

“Our data on turnover shows that farm futures are set to come close to their FY07 high of Rs 13 lakh crore in the current fiscal,” said Mr Khatua. “We expect farm futures turnover at Rs 12 lakh crore.”

Exchanges such as NCDEX and NMCE, which predominantly offer agri commodities for trading, were impacted by the ban of commodities over the period. While wheat was relisted in May last year, it was soon followed by the delisting of the sugar contract. However, according to Mr Khatua, the relisting of the four commodities since the beginning of 2009 has helped. In fact, between April and November NCDEX’s average daily turnover (ADT) grew by 60% to around Rs 2,900 crore from a year-ago, while NMCE clocked ADT growth of 535% at Rs 674 crore over the same period.

“The volatility in agri counters because of the poor monsoon and expectations of poor crop have, along with the relisting, helped increase volumes,” said a broker, who requested anonymity. However, the major contributors to the overall turnover were base metals, energy and bullion, which are traded predominantly on MCX. According to FMC, while trade in base metals, energy, carbon credits (negligible), etc, increased by 98% to Rs 24.13 lakh crore between April-December 2009 that of bullion (gold and silver) increased by 9.23% year-on-year to Rs 22.10 lakh crore. The fact that bullion grew from a high base makes the rise in turnover, though modest, significant.

NAFED to import 25,000T of yellow peas

National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation (NAFED) has floated a tender for import of 25,000 tonnes of yellow peas for shipment on March 10 on the eastern ports, the state-run company said. The company has also tendered to import 2,000 tonnes, or in multiples of 1,000 tonnes each, of black matpe, green moong, tur whole, red lentils and chick peas for the Feb-Mar shipment. The last date for submission of both bids is January 27, the company said on its website late on Tuesday.

Basmati export floor may be raised by $200/tonne

A meeting of an empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on prices scheduled for Tuesday is likely to give its nod to hike the minimum export
price (MEP) for basmati by $200 per tonne to the previous level of $1100 per tonne.

Also likely to figure in the discussions are ways and means to bring down the soaring retail price of sugar. The moves under consideration include extending the period of import for white sugar from March 2010 to December, in line with the deadline for zero-duty import of raw sugar. Indications of this were given by food minister Sharad Pawar here on Monday. However, unless international sugar prices soften, this would be of little help.

Although the Cabinet last week decided to stop sugar exports, this was just a politically symbolic move. There is intense pressure on the government to import directly, bypassing the private sector that has imported a minuscule amount of white sugar thus far despite zero duty. Merely extending the import deadline may not help ease consumer prices even marginally until mid-year . Traders have, however, imported in excess of 3 million tonnes of raw sugar.

Another 2.5-3 million tonnes of sugar imports are estimated for the 2009-10 sugar year to meet the annual consumption needs of 23 million tonnes.

But sources ruled out the possibility of direct white sugar imports by the government at the current high global prices, given the possible political repercussions if imports cost much in excess of farmer price for sugarcane and domestic production price. In fact, the government has been unable to bring down prices thanks to high international prices of both raw and white or refined sugar and the consequent refusal of traders to import.

The landed cost for both types of sugar is far in excess of domestic production price per tonne and sugar mills have chosen to hike the sugarcane price to farmers given the acute tight supply in the peak crushing season.

Several administrative and fiscal measures have failed to yield significant results.

Food minister Sharad Pawar last week shot off a letter to UP CM Mayawati asking her to allow traders from UP to pick up 8 lakh tonnes of raw sugar stuck at the Kandla port after the state banned imports.

On rice, it is estimated that at current high market prices paid by basmati traders to farmers at home, the export price of the Pusa 1121 (evolved basmati) variety exceeds $1200 per tonne while that of traditional basmati exceeds $1500 per tonne. Compared to a price of Rs 19,000 per tonne paid by traders to farmers on December 21, 2009, for the Pusa 1121, the price of the variety was Rs 26,000 per tonne in the same period last year. For traditional basmati, the price on December 22 this year was around Rs 37,000 per tonne compared to only Rs 24,000 per tonne same time last year.

Given this and the supply strain for all rice at home in tandem with high price, indications are that the EGoM will go with the view that keeping the MEP at the current $900 per tonne will not be wise.


At $14.6 bn, exports rise for 2nd month running

India's exports rose for the second consecutive month with exports worth $14.6 billion in December , according to Union Commerce and Industry minister, Anand Sharma. The government is expected to take a final decision on extending sops to exporters on Tuesday in New Delhi, Mr Sharma added.

The minister also said that food inflation may be reined in on back of good Rabi prospects for wheat and sugar, though pulses prices were a matter of concern. Speaking at the sidelines of the Bancon 09-10 , Mr Sharma, said that exports amounted to $14.6 billion in December, a growth of 9.4% over November. `Although the country’s exports have moved to a positive terrain in the past two months, the economy is yet to recover from the losses resulted from 13-months of continuous fall in exports , Mr. Sharma said, adding that export growth could maintain momentum moving ahead.

Mr Sharma expressed concerns over soaring food price inflation and indicated that in some cases there have been speculative build-ups . He, however, ruled out the need for foodgrain (wheat and rice) imports. "We don’t have a situation of India needing to import wheat and rice. With good prospects of rabi, we are hopeful of food prices coming down," Mr Sharma said, attributing the current surge in food inflation to high sugar prices, and he also concede that there has been shortages in pulses. Mr Sharma said that the government has taken a number of steps to ease the inflationary situation. These measures are expected to yield results in the foreseeable future, he said.

The government also plans to come out with a single document for foreign direct investment (FDI) soon to simplify understanding of the rules. "We have put this document for discussions with all stakeholders to invite their comment which is expected to close by January 31. By March 31, we will have single FDI document to ensure simplification, easy comprehension and predictability," Mr Sharma said.

Mr Sharma also said that the economic stimulus will be rolled back only after the economy shows sustained growth. Earlier delivering the keynote address Mr Sharma advised the bankers that they have to play a role in ensuring a balanced growth in the country. That growth has to be redistributed, otherwise it will be a zero-sum game. And banks have role to play in this process ’ He said. The govt will take a final decision on extending sops to exporters on Tuesday.

India to spend additional $110 mn on export push

India will give financial incentives to exports of around 2,000 products including those in engineering, electronics and chemicals, Trade Minister Anand Sharma said on Tuesday.

A senior trade official said the boost, to support a nascent recovery in India's exports sector, would cost upto an additional Rs 5 billion ($110 million) in the current fiscal year ending March. "We considered it necessary to provide further support especially to those products for which exports are still not doing well," Sharma said.

India's exports rose an annual 18.2 per cent in November to $13.2 billion, the first rise after 13 straight months of decline. Though Sharma said he was optimistic about export growth in the coming months, some sectors continue to struggle. Director General of Foreign Trade RS Gujral said the financial implication of the move "will be anywhere between 450 to 500 crores (Rs 4.5-5 billion)", and will come out of the trade ministry's current budget.

India will focus on the Chinese and the Japanese markets for exports, Sharma added. Last week, Sharma said his ministry would recommend additional fiscal stimulus for some exporters in the federal budget in February. A trade ministry statement released on Tuesday said the finance ministry has yet to decide whether to offer more support to export sectors such as textiles, handicrafts, and gems and jewellery.

India's farm exports up by 40%

"The country's farm product exports in value terms have surged by about 40% to over Rs.80,600 crore in the last three years. Foodgrain, oilmeals and fruits & vegetables witnessed maximum demand in the overseas market." a government statement said on wednesday. Export of tea and coffee rose marginally at Rs.2,688 crore and Rs.2,256 crore.

Whereas Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on wednesday "With the measures we have taken, the prices of essential commodities are expected to start coming down in 8-10 days."

Area, Production and Productivity of Sesame in India

Sesame is grown in the world on 6.3 million hectares. About 35% of the area lies in India. Other sesame growing countries in the order of their area are China, Sudan, Burma, Mexico, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Venezuela and Colombia.

Major growing states in the order of area are Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujrat, Tamil Nadu and Orissa. Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh together contribute about about half of the total sesame production of the country. However, a distressing feature is the productivity of sesame in these states is very low.

Gujrat leads in trading of sesame seeds. Gujrat has two trade markets in Rajkot and Unjha, in these two markets farmers from Rajasthan, Gujrat, Madhya Pradesh and other neighbouring states gather for auction of sesame and other agricultural products.

Sesame Seeds

Sesame (Sesamum indicum) is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods.

Sesame seeds may be the oldest condiment known to man dating back as early as 1600 BC. They are highly valued for oil which is exceptionally resistant to rancidity. "OPEN SESAME" the famous phrase from Alibaba & 40 nights from the stories of Arabian Nights, reflects the distinguishing feature of the sesame pod, which bursts open when it reaches maturity.

Not only sesame seeds are very god source of manganese and copper, but also of calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorous, vitamin B1, zinc and dietary fiber. In addition to these important nutrients, sesame seeds contain two unique substances namely: sesamin and sesamolin. Both of these substances belong to a group of special beneficial fibres called lignans, and have been shown to have cholesterol lowering effect in humans. Sesamin has also been found to protect the liver from oxidative damage.

RICH IN BENEFICIAL MINERALS:

Sesame seeds are very good source of copper, magnesium and calcium. Just a quarter cup of sesame seeds supplies 74% of the daily value for copper, 31.6% of the daily value for magnesium and 35.1% of the daily value for calcium.

ZINC FOR BONE HEALTH:

Another reason for older men to make zinc rich foods such as sesame seeds a regular part of their healthy way of eating is bone mineral density. Although osteoporosis is often thought to be a disease for which post menopausal women are at high risk, it is also a potential problem for older men. Almost 30% of hip fractures occur in men, and 1 in 8 men over age 50 will have an osteoporotic fracture.

SESAME SEEDS PHYTOSTEROLS LOWERS CHOLESTROL:

Phytosterols are compounds found in plants that have a chemical structure very similar to cholestrol, and when present in the diet in sufficient amounts, are believed to reduce levels of cholestrol. enhance the immune response and decrease risk of certain cancers. Phytosterols beneficial effects are so dramatic that they have been extracted from soyabean, corn and pine tree oil and added to processed foods such as 'butter' replacement spreads, which are touted as cholestrol lowering foods. but why settle for an imitation butter when Mother nature's nuts and seeds are naturally rich source of phytosterols and cardio-protective fiber, minerals and healthy fats as well.