Turmeric farmers and traders have been hit hard by poor sales during peak season.

“Many traders and farmers expected good sales of turmeric during the peak period, which started a month ago,” said trader RKV Ravishankar.

“But, this year, for the first time in recent history, both farmers and traders are in agony due to poor production and tepid demand from North India.

“Due to monsoon failure, turmeric cultivation has been affected. Some farmers are using open and bore wells, while some others are buying water at exorbitant rates to save their standing turmeric crop, but the yield was very poor. Because of this they incurred heavy cultivation charges. But the present prices are not feasible for them — in fact, they have incurred losses.”

He also said the upcountry demand for turmeric has been very low, as the traders in North India have started sourcing turmeric from other locations such as Assam, Warangal and Nizamabad.

So the local turmeric prices were slashed and sales remained very low.

On Thursday, 4,000 bags of turmeric — including 3,200 bags of new turmeric — arrived at the market here. Buyers purchased 80 per cent of the new turmeric and 30 per cent of the old turmeric for their local demand.

Both finger and root varieties of turmeric rose by ₹400 a quintal at the Regulated Marketing Committee sales yard, where the arrival fell drastically to 182 bags.

Finger turmeric was sold at ₹6,699-7,909 a quintal, while root variety was sold at ₹6,279-7,405. All the 182 bags placed for sale were sold.

In other markets, turmeric prices fell by ₹100 a quintal.

At the Erode Turmeric Merchants Association sales yard, the finger variety was sold at ₹5,559-8129 a quintal while the root variety was sold at ₹5,200-7,139. Of the 2,179 bags on sale, only 610 were sold.

At the Erode Cooperative Marketing Society, the finger and root varieties were sold at ₹6,803-7,777 and ₹6,403-6,829 a quintal, respectively.

Of the 661 bags on sale, 643 were sold.