The currency crunch resulting from demonetisation has hit trading in Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) markets across Karnataka, bringing down the volume of trade by 38 per cent.
While the volume of commodities transacted fell from 137 lakh quintals during November 1-8 to 85.1 lakh quintals from November 9-16, the value of the total trade went down from Rs. 633 crore to Rs. 414 crore during the same period. The cash-based system was largely replaced by financial instruments during the period, reveals a survey conducted by the Rashtriya e-Market Services (ReMS), a joint venture of the State and NCDEX Spot Exchange Ltd.
“Farmers are sceptical of bringing their produce for sale to AMPCs while traders and commission agents are not fully participating in the markets leading to an adverse impact on normal transactions,” Manoj Rajan, Managing Director, and CEO, ReMS, and Additional Secretary, Agricultural Marketing Department, told The Hindu .
Though 152 out of 158 APMC markets in Karnataka have rolled out online unified markets’ platform, a bulk of transactions with farmers is by cash. About 75 per cent lots varied from one quintal to five quintals.
