Cardamom prices continued to rule steady despite higher arrivals on good buying support from exporters and upcountry buyers at the auctions.

In fact, the export buying has kept the market steady without prices falling. Exporters were estimated to have bought around 80 tonnes of good quality cardamom last week.

“They were active as they were having orders/ good inquiries from overseas markets and hence were buying good colour bold capsules of 7mm and above at prices ranging from Rs 825-875 a kg. This variety was at around 20 per cent of the total arrivals,” market sources told Business Line.

Upcountry buyers were also active and consequently withdrawals last week were insignificant.

The individual auction average continued to stay below Rs 700 and vacillating between Rs 620 and Rs 685 for over a month now.

Much of the material arrived in the market at present are of inferior quality from the last round of picking and that has been keeping the prices low.

This kind of material was also responsible for the poor prices, they said.

As the prices have been showing a declining trend for about a month those holding stocks were said to have started selling fearing further decline.

At the Sunday auction conducted by the KCPMC, total arrivals stood at 79.6 tonnes and almost the entire quantity was sold.

The maximum price was at Rs 994 and the minimum was Rs 480 .

The auction average was at Rs 663.85 marginally up from Rs 644.46 on the previous Sunday, P.C. Punnoose, General Manager, CPMC, told Business Line.

Prices of graded varieties (Rs/kg): AGEB 935-945; AGB 675-685; AGS 655-665 and AGS -1: 645-655.

Published on April 8, 2013