Pepper continues to stay hot

Spot pepper continued to stay hot on Tuesday on strong demand amid squeezed availability. There were buyers in Kochi for ungarbled pepper at ₹690 a kg, trade sources said. On the terminal market, 12 tonnes were traded at ₹695-705 a kg. Spot prices increased by ₹200 a quintal to ₹68,100 (ungarbled) and ₹71,100 (garbled). April contract on the IPSTA stayed steady while May and June went up by ₹1,000 a quintal to ₹70,000 and ₹69,000 respectively. Export prices also moved up to around $11,000 a tonne c&f for Europe and $11,250 for the US.