Reliance Money, NMCE To Set Up Agri-Produce Spot Exchange

Reliance Money and the National Multi-Commodity Exchange (NMCE) have announced the setting up of the National Agriculture Produce Marketing Company of India Ltd (National APMC Ltd), a spot exchange for agricultural produce. The National APMC aims to provide the required infrastructure for electronic trading in agricultural products, bringing in greater transparency, accessibility, risk management capability and price discovery.

It will provide the benefit and convenience of efficient price discovery and trading to producers and thus, widen the scope of the market across the country.

“The electronic spot trading will allow producers to get the best possible price for their commodity at a given point of time, since buyers from across the country will be able to buy commodities through the National APMC. It will unlock unprecedented value through benefits from better prices, transparent trading, guaranteed trades, better warehousing and logistics and lower marketing costs for farmers, traders and consumers,” said Sudip Bandyopadhyay, CEO, Reliance Money.

The National APMC is hopeful of operationalising the electronic platform for spot trading in agricultural commodities in the latter part of this year. Gujarat Niyantrit Bazaar Sangh, the apex body of more than 200 mandis in Gujarat, is a co-promoter of National APMC. Besides Gujarat Niyantrit Bazar Sangh, National APMC has already received approval from the government of Rajasthan to electronically integrate the agricultural mandis in Rajasthan.

“We will initially focus on these two states and later expand our presence to other states. We plan to reach out to all the 7,500 Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) across the country over the next one year,” said Kailash Gupta, MD, NMCE.

The National APMC will provide on-line price dissemination and an efficient warehouse-based delivery system, which will complement the existing efforts in the supply chain management of perishable commodities and reduce wastage. Being a neutral integrated platform, the exchange will benefit not only individual producers, but also farmer associations, co-operatives, corporate houses and other stakeholders.

At the outset, the National APMC will set up delivery centres in Rajasthan and Gujarat.