The Hindu Business Line : New pepper auction centre at Wayanad

A NEW pepper auction centre would be inaugurated on February 28 at Bathery in Kerala's Wayanad district aimed at facilitating sale of the produce grown in the region.

The auctions would be conducted by Green Agro Trade Links (P) Ltd (GATLL), Kalpetta, in the district in association with the State-owned Agricultural Wholesale Market (AWM) at Vengeri, Kozhikode. Subsequent auctions would be held at AWM every week on Fridays, Mr Sunny Mathew, Managing Director, GATLL, told Business Line. He said that his company was the auctioneer for cardamom in the Malabar region.

According to Mr Sunny, it would become a platform for sellers of Wayanad who do not have sales tax registrations and for buyers outside Kerala who find it difficult to get assured quality. "We are collecting pepper from the growers and after garbling, it is graded and packed after Agmark certification," he said. As the company would be directly collecting the produce from the growers, there would be "no chance of mixing up it with imported pepper," he said.

Besides, the sellers have the right to cancel the bid if they are not satisfied with the prices. They could keep the stock in the warehouse until the sale is made. Malabar Gold 1 (MG 1) and Tellichery Green Bold (TGB) are the normally exported grades. Giant and other bold grades have more internal demand, he said. "We are putting up more collection depots so that the sellers could pool their pepper at the nearest depots."

The reason for setting up the platform in the district is that Wayanad bold pepper has high international and domestic demand, he said.

Once VAT is introduced in April the market would attain more clarity, he said adding, "We expect a lot of North Indian buyers resulting in a trade boom." Transparency of sales could also be maintained as the sellers' name would be noted in the sale bill, he said.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
ICAR chief wants farm graduates to be job creators

Banana research centre signs pact with TNAU

Labour shortage haunts rubber sector in Kerala

Havukal winter tea fetches Rs 810 a kg

Cotton to test resistance

Survey reveals gold deposits worth Rs 600 cr in Nilambur

SEA team to Pakistan

N-E spices body seeks separate marketing arm

New pepper auction centre at Wayanad

Pepper prices rule firm