Guar – good rains, decent crop, weak demand, lower prices

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Guar Crop 2023 estimates/guesstimates

It is a bit early to give out the 2023 crop estimates but on the basis of initial info that has been gathered from the market we can give you the following figures:

  • Guar Seed 2023 crop estimate = 7.5 million bags of Guar Seed of 100 kg each = 210,000 MT of Guar Splits
  • Carryover (guesstimate) of Guar Seed and Guar Splits (equivalent quantity of Guar seed bags considered) = 12.5 million bags of Guar Seed of 100 kg each = 350,000 MT of Guar Splits

Indian Southwest Monsoon 2023

The monsoon has been good for the major Guar growing states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat (a far third). Please see the map below in which the cumulative rainfall received so far, in the important meteorological sub-divisions for the Guar crop, has been shown:

Source: IMD (click HERE to go to the IMD site)

Guar Gum demand

Guar Gum demand has been weak lately

Guar Splits prices

The combination of good rains, expectation of a decent size crop and weak demand have led to a decline in Guar Splits prices by around 10% over the past 3 weeks and we believe that this is a good opportunity to cover some volume for Q1 2024.

Hope all this info helps you in taking an informed decision about your purchases.

Lastly the picture associated with this post is of dried Guar pods from which the dried and hardened Guar Seeds are obtained for producing Guar Gum!

Guar Seed Visuals from the 2023 Crop

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Guar Seed Visuals from the 2023 Crop
Guar seed arrivals from the 2023 crop have begun. The numbers are very small as yet – around 2500 bags (100 kg each) from the areas of Sri Ganganagar, Hanumangarh and Churu.

For many of you who are buying Guar Gum powder but have never seen the Guar seed from which it is made, here is a short video clip from yesterday’s arrivals of Guar seeds at an agri-market yard.

https://youtube.com/shorts/upbp_9Y4crQ?feature=share

Please do let us know if we can service any of your Guar Gum requirements at present.

Oil rigs down, Guar prices down!

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Since our last Guar Market & Indian Southwest Monsoon Update dated 2-May-23, the IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) came out with an updated forecast on 26-May-23 wherein it is stated that “Region wise, the southwest monsoon seasonal rainfall is most likely to be below normal over Northwest India”. Northwest includes all the 3 Guar growing states of India – Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat.

To see IMD’s complete report pls visit
https://internal.imd.gov.in/press_release/20230526_pr_2353.pdf

Normally such a forecast would have resulted in an immediate and significant upswing in Guar splits prices. However on this occasion prices did not spike as Guar Gum demand has been quite weak for the last couple of months. Activity in the U.S. oil industry has certainly slowed down as can be made out from the Baker Hughes Rig Count report which came out yesterday and mentions that “U.S. Rig Count is down 15 from last week to 696 with oil rigs down 15 to 555, gas rigs unchanged at 137 and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 4. U.S. Rig Count is down 31 rigs from last year’s count of 727 with oil rigs down 19, gas rigs down 14 and miscellaneous up 2”.

For your reference given below is our latest Guar Splits Price movement chart.

 

Guar sowing has somewhat begun in the irrigated areas of Haryana, but for the rain fed areas of Rajasthan sowing will only begin sometime in July (provided those areas receive at least a good first bout of rainfall). Apart from the below normal monsoon which might impact the Guar 2023 crop size, the crop size might also be impacted by farmers in certain areas choosing to raise crops, other than Guar, whose prices are more lucrative. But …. still early days to say anything with any level of certainty. So we will keep a close eye on the developments and will keep you posted.

Indian SW Monsoon rainfall over Guar-growing Northwest India

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As a sequel to Skymet’s pan-India forecast released on 3-Apr-19, we give below Skymet’s quantitative distribution of Indian SW Monsoon rainfall over the Guar-growing areas of Northwest India. This region-wise forecast comes with an error margin of +/- 8%.

Although the Southwest Monsoon 2019 is likely to make onset over Kerala on June 4, it seems that initial advancement of Monsoon over Peninsular India is going to be slow. For Guar-growing Northwest India, the region is expected to record normal rainfall to the tune of 96% of LPA. However the hilly states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are likely to perform better than the plains of Punjab, and the Guar-growing states of Rajasthan and Haryana.

Over the last one month, Guar splits prices have remained fairly stable. We believe that prices will continue to remain at current levels unless the Indian Meteorological Department’s second stage Indian SW Monsoon-2019 Forecast, which will be released during the first week of Jun-19, has some negative implications for the Guar-growing areas of India.

 

 

IMD’s 2019 Southwest Monsoon Update & Impact on Guar Market

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Yesterday the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) released its first Long Range Forecast of the 2019 Southwest Monsoon. The summary is as under:

a) Southwest monsoon seasonal (June to September) rainfall over the country as a whole is likely to be near normal

b) Quantitatively, the monsoon seasonal (June to September) rainfall is likely to be 96% of the Long Period Average (LPA) with a model error of ± 5%. The LPA of the season rainfall over the country as a whole for the period 1951-2000 is 89 cm

c) Weak El Niño conditions are likely to prevail during the monsoon season with reduced intensity in the later part of the season.

The sea surface temperature (SST) conditions over the Pacific (El Niño/La Niña) and Indian Oceans (Indian Ocean Dipole-IOD) which are known to have strong influence on Indian monsoon are being continuously monitored. Overall, the country is expected to have well distributed rainfall scenario during the 2019 monsoon season, which will be beneficial to farmers in the country during the ensuing kharif season

IMD will issue the second stage Monsoon-2019 Forecast during the first week of Jun-19.

As IMD expects monsoons to be near-normal, Guar Seed/Splits prices have declined today and so it is a good opportunity to cover any Guar Gum requirements that you may have for the next couple of months.

The complete IMD forecast can be found HERE

 

Indian Southwest Monsoon 2019 Update

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As is well known, the Indian Southwest Monsoon plays a very important role in the development of the annual Guar crop here in India. It is therefore important to closely monitor the onset and progress of the monsoon and to that end we give below details of the first forecast for the Indian SW Monsoon of 2019.

Skymet, a weather forecasting and agriculture risk solutions company from the Indian private sector, released yesterday its Monsoon forecast for 2019. It expects the upcoming Monsoon to be ‘below normal’ to the tune of 93% (with an error margin of +/-4%) of the long period average (LPA) of 887 mm for the four-month period from June to September. In terms of geographical risk, Skymet expects that East India along with major portion of Central India is likely to be at a higher risk of being rain deficient, especially during the first half of the season. The onset month of June is going to have a very sluggish start and deficit rains are likely to spill into July. Second half of the season would see better rainfall wherein August is expected to be a shade better than September, but both the months would manage to see normal rains.

According to Skymet, Monsoon probabilities for Jun-Jul-Aug-Sep are:

  • 0% chance of excess rainfall
  • 0% chance of above normal rainfall
  • 30% chance of normal rainfall
  • 55% chance of below normal rainfall
  • 15% chance of drought

Premcem’s inference about the impact on the Guar Crop for 2019:

  • Firstly the geographical areas mentioned above, East India and Central India, where Skymet expects a higher risk of deficient rains, are not Guar growing areas
  • Secondly, although the onset on the monsoon is going to be sluggish and deficient, it is expected that the second half of the season, August and September, would see normal rains. And as Guar is usually planted later in the season, we feel that the adverse conditions in the first half of the season will not have an adverse impact on the Guar crop
  • Lastly, if the onset and progress of the monsoon, in the areas that grow Guar and some other competing crops, is significantly delayed, this might be to Guar’s advantage as it has a short crop cycle and so farmers would prefer to sow Guar as opposed to other crops.

So in a nutshell, there is no cause for major worry and customers can look to cover their requirements for the next couple of months at this stage. The next important forecast to watch out for would be the one from the Indian Meteorological Department.

To download Skyment’s Monsoon 2019 Forecast PPT, click HERE

Guar Crop v/s Demand

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As of now the Guar Crop is estimated to be around 7 million bags which translates to 700,000 MT (Metric Tons) of Guar Seed or around 196,000 MT of Guar Splits. If it rains in western Rajasthan (Barmer and Jaisalmer areas) in the next fortnight, the crop figure can easily go up to 8 or 8.5 million bags.

From APEDA the export statistics for Guar Gum + Guar Splits are as under:

Apr17 – Mar18: 366,664 MT
Apr18 – Jun18: 97,411 MT

So it is apparent that if the average monthly export of Guar Gum + Guar Splits continues at the rate of around 30,000 MT/month (based on the above mentioned data), then the upcoming crop is going to fall short of demand. There is definitely a “carryover” from previous years and this will make up say around 50% of the shortfall, but overall it is still looking like a case where demand is definitely going to be more than supply.

Hence it is quite possible that prices may go up significantly from current levels once the peak arrivals of Oct-Nov-Dec are over.

Rajasthan Guar Crop 2018 Update

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Given in the table below are the latest Guar sowing figures for Rajasthan – as on 7-Aug-18.

As can be seen, the area covered for Guar is 2806K hectares against a target of 3500K hectares. The overall coverage might increase if the important Guar growing areas of Western Rajasthan receive rains in the next 7 to 10 days.

The Govt. Of India recently announced higher MSP (minimum support price) for a range of crops, including some that compete against Guar). There is no MSP for Guar and as a result Guar has lost out to some other crops this season. And although it is still early to talk about the Guar crop figures for 2018, we believe that the number is likely to be lower than, or at the most similar to, that of last year

India’s first Agri-Commodity Options launched in Guar Seed

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On Sunday 14-Jan-18, the Finance Minister of India launched India’s first agri-commodity options in Guar Seed.

The options have been launched on NCDEX. Please click HERE to read the official circular and the contract specifications. In the coming weeks/months we will let you all know the impact of these options on the Guar market.

Some news links can be found below:

The Economic Times
Jaitley launches India’s first agro options contract in guar seeds, says will benefit farmers

Business Standard
The Union Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley launches the countrys First Agri-commodity Options

The Indian Express
Agriculture top priority for the government: Arun Jaitley

SHEFEXIL’s Final Report on the Guar Crop for 2016-17

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SHEFEXIL, the nodal Indian Government Agency for Guar Gum export, has come out with the Final Round Report for the Guar Crop for the 2016-17 season. The crop survey was undertaken by the Nielsen Company, Mumbai, at the behest of SHEFEXIL, Kolkata. The estimated Guar Seed crop for the 2016-17 is 17.5 million bags of Guar Seed – approximately 36% lower than previous years.

To view the complete report please click HERE