Cardamom recovered on improved upcountry demand amid squeeze in supply at auctions held last week.

Lack of rains in the small cardamom growing regions of Kerala’s Idukki district has led to fears over a possible delay in the new crop, market sources in Bodinayakkanur told Business Line .

At the same time, the trade feels that given the uncertain weather conditions prevailing currently, the crop might also be lower.

This aided the uptrend in prices last week, they said. Arrivals continued to remain thin. At the auction, 10 per cent of the material that arrived was from the new crop brought by small growers, they said.

Exporters were inactive following slack demand. Major markets such as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries appear to get their supplies from Guatemala at competitive prices when Indian prices are ruling high.

At the same time, Ramzan falls early this time, almost before the beginning of harvest in India, and hence the buying has also taken place early. At the KCPMC auction, arrivals incresed to 43.3 tonnes from 30.2 tonnes the previous Sunday and the entire quantity was sold, PC Punnoose, General Manager, CPMC, Kumily, said.

The maximum price was ₹975 and the minimum was ₹411 a kg. Auction average increased to ₹752.97 from ₹701.07 the previous Sunday, he said.

In fact, prices recovered last week and vacillated between ₹745 and ₹770.

During the current season, arrivals stood at 20,610 tonnes against 14,377 tonnes as on June 15 during the last season. The sales were 19,982 tonnes against 13,758 tonnes respectively. The weighted average price as on June 15 stood at ₹642.22 ( ₹706.02).

Prices of all graded varieties (₹/kg): AGEB 920-930; AGB 720-730; AGS 690-700 and AGS -1: 670-680.

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