Jaggery gets bumper price, brings cheers to sugarcane growers

Despite the district facing a severe drought situation, sugarcane farmers are however indirectly benefitting from this, as the moulded jaggery produced by them has been fetching them a bumper price this year.

The higher levels of profitability has been attributed to the supply chain being hit, giving rise to a skewed demand for the product.

The jaggery produced in the district are rated as the best in quality, and each quintal is being sold at Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,500, much higher than the previous years. The prices of jaggery is said to be Rs 1,000 more per quintal, when compared to Mandya market.

The Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee here is abuzz with activity on Wednesdays and Saturdays, when the jaggery is sold. Around four lakh jaggery moulds have been sold in the last two days.

Apart from the local trading, traders from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu too have been arriving in large numbers to purchase jaggery. Also, a majority of the jaggery sold in Bangalore is being dispatched from Chamarajanagar.

The district has been facing severe drought since the past three years, and the water table has depleted to alarming levels. However, the farmers surrounding Kabini canal were successful in harvesting good yield of sugarcane.

But, these farmers do not supply cane to the sugar factories but use them to produce jaggery in their own jaggery making units, known as ‘aale mane’ in Kannada.

Sugarcane was grown in about 5,871 hectares of land in the district during the year 2013-14, with a target of producing 4.89 lakh tonnes of jaggery. This year however, sugarcane was grown in only 3,472 hectares (due to insufficient rains), with a target of producing 3.22 lakh tonnes of jaggery. Around 50 per cent of the cane produced here is used for making jaggery.

There are more than 250 jaggery making units in the district. Bucket jaggery (jaggery moulded in the size of bucket) is not produced in the district, and only a few farmers are involved in manufacturing black jaggery.

These are purchased by the traders in Andhra Pradesh, which is used for manufacturing medicines. Currently one quintal of black jaggery is being sold at Rs 2,500.