TIRUCHY: Riding on increasing patronage, sales at the Kattuputhur regulatory market-cum-banana auction centre recorded an all-time high at Rs 4.05 lakh this week.
Though starting off to poor response since it was converted to an exclusive auction centre for banana last year, the Kattuputhur market -- with a storage capacity of around 2000 bunches, now ends up seeing farmers stacking up their harvest outside the auction floor.
On February 28, a total of 78.84 metric tonnes (2,628 banana bunches) were brought for auction by 143 farmers and sold for a total of Rs 4,05,425. Sixteen traders took part in the auction. A bunch was sold at an average of Rs 154 per bunch and the maximum price fetched was Rs 430 per bunch.
According to the marketing committee of the Agriculture marketing department, the Kattuputhur centre has been witnessing high sales over the past few weeks.
"As there is no service charge for selling their bananas during the auction, farmers are showing more interest towards the auction centre than selling it in the open market. Following the gradual arrival of farmers to the weekly auction, traders' arrival witnessed a nominal rise. This led to an increase in sales.
Notably, the sales during the previous two weeks have been Rs 3.4 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively. Based on the demand, we expect the sale to be much higher in the coming weeks," said a senior official in the marketing committee.
Anand, a banana farmer, said, "Being high season for bananas, we are getting an average price of Rs 6 per kilo in the open market, whereas it is Rs 8 - Rs 22 per kilo in the Kattuputhur auction centre. Also there are no service charges levied. Hence we opt for it."