The sources said on Tuesday that the Mumbai market reported a fall of Rs 20 per tin, with the fresh arrival of groundnut from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The difference between the prices at Mumbai and in Saurashtra would further narrow down as the demand at Mumbai falls with more arrivals, the sources predicted.

According to them, all the 56 yards in Saurashtra and Kutch have received about 1.5 lakh bags of groundnut, while about 50,000 bags have gone to millers directly so far. These fresh arrivals as well as distress sales by growers in Junagadh in view of a cloudy weather have led to a drop in the oil prices.

The optimism at the yards is also because of thefact that a major part of the khariff yield has still not arrived in view of the cloudy weather. A fortnight of bright sun and the yards will be flooded, the sources say.

The prices of cottonseeds oil, a substitute to the most popular cooking medium, also registered a fall. This year the cotton crop has been good and the prices are likely to fall further during winter, the sources said, adding the recent rain had prevented farmers from bringing their produce to the yards. Similarly, the tilseed yield, though damaged to some extent, has been salvaged and brought to the yards, saving it from further damage.

Rajkot marketing yard chairman Shamjibhai Khunt, however, expressed apprehension that farmers of Saurashtra will lose the Mumbai market to their South Indian counterparts if the ``ban'' on groundnut export is not lifted soon. He cited the Shankersinh Vaghela government's decision to lift the ban and claimed the move had led to a drastic fall in the oil prices.

Meanwhile, Bhartiya Kishan Sanghintensified its stir for a better return to the groundnut growers and gave a call for bandh in at Vadia, Damnagar, Babra talukas in Amreli, Jetpur in Rajkot and Dhrol and Jodiya talukas in Jamnagar districts.