Tur prices up, dal mills slash output by 20%

Spike in tur prices following a decline in supplies has led to a drop in processing by dal mills, struggling with tepid demand.

High tur prices have dented domestic demand, said dal millers slashing processing by 10-20 per cent to cope up with reduced off-take.

“Demand for tur dal is weak. Prices of tur have jumped sharply due to lower production and less supplies of imported pulses. Looking at the current scenario, dal mills have cut down on tur processing because off-take is very limited in the spot market,” said Komal Agrawal, a dal miller from Palda industrial area.

Madhya Pradesh is a major centre for dal mills with around 700 dal mills in the state of which 160 in Indore.

High prices of pulses in the domestic market have increased the dependency of dal processing units on imported raw pulses to carry processing. But reduced supply of imported pulses has further declined the availability of tur in the market. India mostly imports tur from Myanmar and East African nations.

Dal millers said tur dal is trading at Rs 175 per kg up by Rs 20 per kg.

They said, apart from weak consumer demand, reduced availability of workforce and frequent tripping in power lines has hampered operations at dal processing units.

Another dal miller Rakesh Agrawal said, “Demand is weak and we are more expensive than other states due to imposition of mandi tax in MP. High competition and prices are throwing us out of the market.”

They said pulses processed in MP are about 1.5-2 per cent more expensive than neighbouring states due to transportation and mandi cess.

This article has been republished from The Times of India.