The Hindu Business Line : Cardamom prices steady on buying support

Cardamom prices continued rule high and remained stable at auctions held in Tamil Nadu and Kerala during the week on decline in arrivals due to poor crop.

Arrival at the Cardamom Processing and Marketing Company’s auction in Kumily stood at 44 tonnes as against the normal 70 tonnes in the previous seasons. Of this, two tonnes were withdrawn, Mr P.C. Punnoose, General Manager, CPMC, told Business Line.

Fall in output

The drop in arrivals, which signals an overall fall in the output for the current season, appears to have prompted the dealers to buy, he said.

Some export buying was also taking place for selected buyers overseas in small quantity, he said. On Wednesday, exporters bought five tonnes of the commodity.

The prices were steady with the 8mm bold fetching Rs 550-580 a kg while 7-8mm Rs 500-525 a kg. Current bulk with good colour was being sold at Rs 550-565 a kg. The average price on Wednesday was at Rs 550 a kg, he said.

Significantly, there were 18 kg of 9mm bold capsules which fetched Rs 700 a kg, he said.

If the current trend of arrivals was any indication, the total output during the current season might be 30-40 per cent less than that of the previous season.

As the upcountry dealers are said to be holding a very thin inventory, there could be good buying in the coming weeks and that in turn might keep the prices at moderately higher level, he claimed.

New e-auction centre

He said that CPMC would be conducting future auctions at the new e-auction centre, set up by the Spices Board at Vandanmettu, which was inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, on Saturday.

The first ever e-auction facility in the State, set up with an investment of Rs 55 lakh would be used by all the five auctioneers in the State. The auctioning companies and their auction days are Kerala Cardamom Processing and Marketing Cooperative on Sunday, Heddar Systems on Tuesday, CPMC on Wednesday, MAS enterprises on Friday and Idukki District Spices Marketing and Processing Cooperative on Saturday. Auctions on Monday and Thursday are conducted by Cardamom Planters Association (CPA) and STCL Ltd respectively at Bodinayakannur, where e-auction was launched in late August. The weather conditions so far has been good in the growing areas, but it was not receiving the usual light showers during these weeks in the cardamom belt, sources said.