Coronavirus Dries Up Indian Chillies Export Demand

While the Corona virus is making headlines and spreading fear across the globe, it has left a deep impact on Indian Agri-market and export system. As per the report, Indian dry chilies witnessed a drastic downfall amid the coronavirus fear in China and all over the world. On the other hand, unseasonal rains in the last two days in some parts of Telangana and areas bordering Karnataka have impacted the quality of the product, resulting in a drastic drop in prices. Moreover, the rains have slowed down the drying process of chillies.

Export Demand Dries up 

After the massive Coronavirus outbreak, demand from China, one of the major buyers, has dried up following the outbreak of novel Coronavirus there.

“The Chinese purchases normally begin in February first week. This year, they were hit by the virus crisis around the same time,” a trader at the Khammam Market Yard said to Business Line.

Teja variety of chillies has great demand in the export market, particularly Chinese, who use the product for extracting oil.

On the other hand, Telangana grows chillies on about 2.10 lakh acres. The State expects production of 3.28 lakh tonnes, showing a growth of about 8 per cent over the last year’s production. Telangana produced a record 4.83 lakh tonnes of chillies in 2016-17.

“Unlike in the case of perishables, chilli exports will happen later as demand for chillies extract is very high in China and they will have to depend on us for the produce,” said a middle man who facilitates purchases between farmers and exporters.

Moreover, it comes to notice that though traders are announcing a rate of ₹9,000, they are reducing the price during the sale process to ₹7,000. “We’ve heard that there are issues related to supply chain due to the quarantine norms on both sides. This must-have impacted the purchases,” S Malla Reddy, a Telangana Rythu Sangham leader, said.