Unjha, 19 August 2013

Asia’s number one market yard for cumin at Unjha witnessed trade of 11,13,113 quintal cumin in year 2012-13. Considering that average rate per quintal stays around Rs. 12,000, the market witnessed total trade worth Rs. 13 billion last year. However the market is facing some challenged too. Here are the details in short:

File not moving in Gandhinagar

Due to increased volume of cumin trade, Unjha market yard has sought 84 bigha land on Sidhpur highway near Brahmanvada to build a new market yard. Rs. 28 lakh are already paid one and half year back as service charge in this connection. However the file is pending in Gandhinagar, and there has been no decision yet. The new proposed market yard will have cold storage, godown, fruit, vegetables and cotton market too. It will give instant boost to entire area. However it will come up, only when a proposal for land is cleared by the state government.

VAT waived in Rajasthan, adverse effect to competitiveness

Neighboring Rajasthan government has waived VAT on cumin etc crops. It has impacted competitiveness of Unjha market yard, because here VAT is very much effective. Traders have demanded VAT relief, but the state government has yet not responded to this demand.

Neglect by Indian railways

In year 2012 budget an announcement for development of Unjha railway station was made, however there’s no progress on ground in this regard. As many as 80 trains pass through Unjha, bus important trains skip this station.

Theft of high-value farm produce

In last three months, as many a 150 bags of cumin are stolen at Unjha market. CCTV cameras are not installed for surveillance.