Comments
Cardamom prices increased on higher domestic demand at last week’s auctions held in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Arrivals continued to rise and notwithstanding this development, prices moved up. This has led to the suspicion that inventories with end users/dealers are empty.
Besides, no carryover stocks are said to be with dealers/traders in primary and terminal markets. Growers are also reported to be not holding any stocks from the previous crop, market sources in Bodinayakkanur told BusinessLine.
The trade attributed the demand to fears of supply squeeze from Guatemala, the only other source of supply. In addition, consumption is on the rise. The per capita consumption has gone up.
On the other hand, availability of good colour bold capsules will come to an end with the closing of the current round of picking. This has prompted buyers to cover up. All these factors have aided the price rise at a time when prices of other commodities such as rubber, pepper, tea, etc are falling.
Individual auction average has been vacillating between ₹795 and ₹810 a kg. It was below ₹575 during the same period a year ago, official sources said. Export buying was slack as current prices higher. However, exporters bought an estimated 50 tonnes last week.
At the Sunday auction held by the Kerala Cardamom Processing and Marketing Company, arrivals declined to 118.5 tonnes from 121.3 tonnes at the previous Sunday and the entire quantity was sold out. The maximum price was ₹991 a kg and the minimum ₹554. The auction average increased to ₹801.56/kg from ₹774.04 the previous Sunday, PC Punnoose, General Manager, CPMC, told BusinessLine.
Total arrivals during the season so far stood at 9,872 tonnes against 10,728 tonnes during the same period last year. Sales were at 9,704 tonnes and 10,381 tonnes respectively. The individual auction average, as on December 21 this year, was at around ₹790 (₹571) a kg.
Prices of graded varieties (₹/kg): 8mm bold 1,025; 7-8mm 850; 6-7mm 750; below 6 mm 700.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.