The Hindu Business Line : Upward trend continues in cardamom

Kochi, Nov 4 Cardamom prices continued its upward swing on good buying support and squeeze in supply during the week at auctions held in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

At the auction held on Wednesday at Kumily by Cardamom Processing and Marketing Company (CPMC), the prices showed an increase of Rs 30 a kg from the previous Wednesday’s auction price.

Significantly, the average price shot up for the first time in four years to Rs 440 a kg at the auctions during the week.

The maximum price fetched was Rs 569 a kg while the minimum Rs 275 a kg.

Demand

Domestic buyers were active and what ever quantity arrived was being bought even after the Diwali buying has almost come to an end.

According to trading sources the domestic demand is estimated at 10,000 tonnes and the dealers appear to have no inventory with them this year.

Therefore, imports of few hundred tonnes of the commodity from Guatemala would not make any impact on the market, they said.

Exporters bought eight tonnes of the commodity.

No capsule was being sold below Rs 400 a kg, Mr P.C. Punnoose, General Manager, CPMC, told Business Line.

8 mm bold was fetching Rs 500-525 a kg while 7-8 mm was being sold at Rs 475-500 a kg.

Current bulk was fetching Rs 450-470 a kg.

Arrivals

The arrivals continued to remain 40 per cent less than that of the corresponding period last season.

Normal arrivals during the peak harvesting period used to be 80-90 tonnes at the auction held by the CPMC, he said. “This reflects that there is a fall in the output”, he said.

Unlike in the previous years the weight of the capsules has shown a decline. One litre of cardamom used to weight 420 gm but this season, so far it was weighing only 370 gm.

But, the size of the capsules was bold and bigger.

He attributed this phenomenon to the erratic rains because of which the growers were not able to apply fertilisers at the appropriate time.

The weather conditions prevalent at present are favourable, growers, sources said.

Auction would not be held next Wednesday by CPMC at Kumily on account of Diwali, Mr Punnoose said.