Prices Division

             Price Division of the department collects and compiles various types of price data at Taluk and District level.  After scrutiny and compilation and approval, the data is being forwarded to the Central and State Governments and to other agencies for the purposes of Policy decision, Planning, Research and to watch daily price movements.  The Department is also computing various price Indices. Market Intelligence (MI) is one of the main schemes to provide information on prices of commodities to the primary producers and consumers by regular and prompt supply of market data on Agricultural commodities and its trend.

·         The daily wholesale price bulletin is broadcasted through All India Radio, Kozhikode, Kannur, Thiruvananthapuram, Devikulam, Kochi & Thrissur. Director of the Department exercises the administrative and technical control over MI Scheme.  There are two Regional Statistical Officers in the State, Southern and Northern-zones with Regional Headquarters of Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram respectively.

·          Department has been collecting the Farm price of major agricultural commodities producing in the State since 1954 onwards.  Farm price include farm wholesale price & farm retail price.  Farm wholesale price of 60 commodities are being collected fortnightly every month from all 63 Taluks Centres in the State.

·         Farm retail prices of 45 items are collected monthly from all Taluks and published in Government Gazette.

·         Daily Prices of 50 essential commodities are collected from District headquarters and the consolidated reports are being sent to the office of Chief Minister, Food Minister, Agriculture Minister, Chief Secretary, Food Secretary, Planning Secretary & Director of Civil Supplies, RBI, Supplyco, Horticorp.  In Addition, retail price of 20 other items are also collected weekly.  The Wholesale and Retails Prices of Fruits are collected every Friday and given to Horticultural Corporation.  Daily 22 items of Retail/Wholesale Prices are collected from all Districts for Price Monitoring Cell.

·         The market rate of 18 notified species of forest products are being collected monthly from the important timber markets of Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Kozhikode.  These reports are prepared quarterly and forwarded to the Chief Conservator of Forest, Government of Kerala.  Prices prevailing in the neighbouring states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh for these items are also collected annually.

·         Since 1968, market rate of dietary articles are collecting on quarterly basis which required by hospitals and jails for fixing base prices. These prices are utilized by various medical institutions for the settlement of contracts for the supply of dietary and non-dietary articles.  Government declared the department as a permanent agency for the collection and compilation of prices of dietary articles.

·         The prices of more than 400 items of Ayurveda raw materials are also being collected by this Department once in a year from Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam as and when the request is made by the Ayurveda Colleges of concerned districts.

            Other important prices being collected by the department are coir and husk. These are collected weekly from taluk centres and monthly reports are being furnished to Coir Development Department.  Retail prices of important spices are collected from Kottayam, Idukki, Wayanad and Thrissur and forwarded monthly to Directorate of Cocoa, Arecanut and Spices Board, Kochi.  Whole and retail price of salt are also being collected weekly from Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode and monthly report send to Salt Commissioner Jaipur/Deputy Salt Commissioner Chennai.  Moreover monthly details of stock as well as wholesale and retail prices of salt are also being collected from 10 District Head Quarters and the data is supplied to Director of Civil Supplies.  Weekly price of cocoa is collecting from nine centers and forward to Directorate of Cashew Development Board.

             Besides the price collection of the above said commodities, Department is also computing various index numbers by using the price data. Index numbers are the devices to measure the relative movements in variables. Most of the current indices are indication of changes over time in respect of economic characteristics like prices, output, wages etc. The Department is publishing wholesale price index, parity index, wage index and consumer price index numbers every month. Wholesale price index of important agricultural commodities is forwarded to Planning and Economic Affairs Department, and the Director of Agriculture in State Govt. and to the Economic and Statistics, Advisor Government of India and Chief Statistician of India. Parity index is being sent to Economic Advisor, Wage and Wage Index to Economic and Statistics Advisor, Ministry of Food and Agriculture and CSO. The Consumer price index is sent to Ministry of Labour, The Central Labour Enforcement Officer etc. to calculate DA for labours.  The Consumer Price Index is being forwarded to other agencies also, in accordance with their demand. 

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