The Hindu Business Line : NMCE to launch futures in cardamom, pulses

THE National Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (NMCE) will be the first online commodity exchange in the world to launch futures trading in cardamom, Mr Kailash Gupta, Managing Director of the exchange, has said.

"NMCE is now adding cardamom and pulses futures to its list. Futures trading in these new agro-commodities will be launched on the exchange on February 11, " Mr Gupta said.

"The move to include these commodities will benefit the trading community, exporters as well as the consumer in a big way," he added. Pulses futures list include tur, moong, masoor and urad.

India, the main producer of cardamom, was until recently the leading exporter until Guatemala took over.

Although, India has the largest area under cardamom in the world, productivity has been low. A small quantity is exported because of the large domestic demand, India being the second largest consumer of the spice after Saudi Arabia.

Erratic weather conditions have taken a toll on the quality of cardamom produced, pushing up its prices, he said.

India is also the world's largest producer of grain legumes (peas/pulses) with total production varying between 12.0 million tonnes and 14.0 million tonnes in recent years.

However, per capita net availability of pulses in the country has currently come down to 36.0 grams per day from around 70.0 grams per day in the 1960s in view of substantial increase in population. To fill the gap between domestic supply and demand of pulses, the country has to rely on regular imports, rendering consumers open to greater price risks.

While the Central Government procures pulses at Minimum Support Price (MSP) through National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation of India , the MSP is invariably much lower than the market price. As a result, interventional procurement is largely limited and stabilisation of domestic prices does not take place in reality.

Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), one of the promoters of NMCE will play a major role in the successful operation of futures trading in pulses and cardamom, by providing access to its vast network of 493 warehouses with storage capacity of 9.3 million tonnes with additional capacities of the State warehouses where (CWC has 50 per cent partnership).

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