The Kerala High Court on Friday asked the Spices Board to resume cardamom auctions that were not held for over three weeks now following a decision to raise the minimum bidding rate from Rs 0.50 to Rs 5 by the Board.

In its direction, the Court told the Board to cancel the licences of those auctioneers/traders who are not participating when the auction is resumed.

The Court has given the direction on a petition filed by a group of growers praying for resumption of the auction.

The petitioners agreed to the minimum bidding rate recommended by the expert committee, constituted by the Spices Board.

The traders are also understood to be ready to accept Re 1 as the minimum bidding rate instead of Rs 0.50.

Meanwhile, at an auction held under the auspices of the Indian Farmers Movement (Infam) at Muvattupuzha on Friday, 350 kg of cardamom arrived and of this, 110 kg were sold, M.C. George, National Trustee, Infam, told Business Line .

He said that the graded varieties AGEB, AGB and AGS were sold at Rs 1,310, Rs 985 and Rs 790 a kg, respectively. End-users were the buyers.

A meeting of farmers would be convened on Sunday to work out the future strategy, he said.

Meanwhile, P.T. Thomas Idukki M.P. is reported to have requested the Union Commerce Minister in a letter to amend the relevant portions in the Act regarding cardamom auction so as to enable the growers to sell their produce directly on the open market instead of at the prevailing auction system.

Following raising of the minimum bidding rate from Rs 0.50 to Rs 5 by the Spices Board, all the traders stayed away from the auctions held in Kerala and Tamil Nadu from September 25 in protest against the decision of the Board.

According to the growers, stocks are piling up and that in turn would spoil the quality of the produce. Small and medium growers are put in serious financial crisis.

At the same time, the suspension in trading activities during the peak harvesting season has rendered workers in the plantations and as well as in the trading hub, Bodinayakannur, jobless, market sources in Bodi said.

“It is the time for Navarathri and Divali buying. Also, there are export enquiries. Given this situation, resumption of auctions is inevitable for both the trade and the growers,” they claimed.

While some of the growers claimed that raising the minimum bidding rates would help increase the prices at auctions, a good number of growers argued that it was in no way going to help the growers as “bidding rate is not a problem. Even at the minimum rate of Rs 0.50, the cardamom prices shot up to Rs 2,000 a kg a couple of years ago”, they said.

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