Turmeric market to open today, traders to pay via cheques

“We have been doing business on a cash and carry basis since inception of the market in 1952,” VK Rajamanickam, general secretary of the Federation of All Trade and Industries’ Association, Erode, and former secretary of Erode Turmeric Merchants and Godown Owners Association told DTNext . He said that the decision was taken after a consultative meeting of the merchants’ association on Monday. 

“Those farmers, who are ready to accept cheque payments can bring their samples to the market from Tuesday as the merchants will be paying them only in this mode. There will be some unexpected hiccups as the entire scenario is new for us and farmers. All will be set right,” he added.Based on its grade, turmeric was priced from Rs 7,200 to Rs 8,800 per quintal before the market was closed 10 days ago. Supply from farmers and demand from merchants would be factors that determine the price on Tuesday.

Normalcy in the market is expected to be back in a couple of weeks. Sixty traders, 200 godown owners and about a lakh farmers are linked to this market. About 100 farmers bring their harvest on a normal day. It goes up to 2,000 farmers during the peak season, from February to May. Closure of the market for a week has delayed sale of close to 30,000 bags of turmeric. A bag weighs 75 kg. On an average 5,000 bags of turmeric are brought there for auctioning every day during this season. President of Turmeric Farmers Association of India PK Deivasigamani said that farmers are ready to accept payments in the form of cheque or online transfers. “As far as turmeric farmers are concerned there was no need for closure of the market,” he added.