An early morning walk in the Mirchi Yard at Guntur will tell you the story of red chillies brought, processed, stored, and sold to retailers or exporters.

5 am: Farmers from Khammam, Prakasam and Kurnool districts arrive at Mirchi Yard in lorries with their produce. Some farmers reach the night before and rest at within the premises of the yard at ???Rythu Bhavan???. They segregate and arrange their stocks of chillies in different jute sacks.

7 am: This is the busiest time in the yard. Wholesalers, commission agents and exports arrive in large numbers to bid and buy the best quality chillies available. The price for one quintal (100 kg) of red chillies ranges from Rs 15,000 to Rs 24,000 depending on the quality. The buyers mark their purchase by quoting numbers on the chilli sacks.

12 noon: Bidding gets over. Female labourers do the drying and sorting of chillies while male workers are primarily involved in the carrying of chilli sacks.

7 pm: Lorries leave the yard to the destinations of the buyers. China and Malaysia are the primary buyers of these chillies as the primary ingredient for the making chilli oil.

Kavya Sanjaya is a research scholar at the School of Economics, University of Hyderabad. Dr G Sridevi is a professor at the School of Economics, University of Hyderabad.