We begin with a mixed bag of news from our side this time.
First, the bad news. We lost our founder, Mr Mulchand Sawla, the “M” in the company name, last week. He had worked very hard to create a name and identity for the company over the last several decades. We are happy that he was able to witness and be a part of the transformation of the company from a traditional partnership company to a modern, listed entity. We seek the support of all our partners to help us continue his good business practices and continuously engage with one another for mutual satisfaction and benefits.
Now, coming to the good news.
– The rainfall has covered the whole country and we are now guaranteed good planting of groundnuts across the country.
– The currency is weaker making us slightly more competitive once again in the global markets
– Freight rates have stabilized and even softened ever so marginally after 2 years of one way upward movement.
Stocks in India are low considering that we still have 3 months before the new crop, but not yet something to worry about. The summer crop was smaller than usual and between exports and domestic demand we have consumed a large part of it. Demand and supply are both matching each other and if we see demand increasing, we will surely see prices move up locally. From the export perspective, we have seen our currency weaken hence buyers may not feel any significant price changes.
While we do not have planting numbers yet, the mood is one where we may have similar acreage as last season. Cotton will expand at the cost of other oilseeds and grains, with minimal impact to groundnuts.
Current price levels for peanuts, FOB Mundra, for EU quality are as follows –
Bold 40/50 – USD. 1500.00 pmt
Bold 50/60 – USD. 1475.00 pmt
Java 50/60 – USD. 1525.00 pmt
Java 60/70 – USD. 1500.00 pmt
Java 80/90 – USD. 1450.00 pmt
Prices for peanut oil have corrected in line with global vegetable oil prices but while these oils have corrected about 25 – 30 %, for groundnut oil the correction was only about 10 %. From these levels we personally do not see a down side for groundnut oil at least. August – September are festive months in India and during this time consumption tends to increase hence we would possibly see a small upward movement in prices next month. Prices for 2 FFA oil are in the region of USD. 1925 – 1950.00 pmt FOB Mundra, packed in Flexi tanks within 20’ fcls.