Local demand for spices seem to be slowly picking up, thanks to a reported campaign on ayurvedic cure for Covid-19.

This has created some enthusiasm in different States which started encouraging the use of pepper, ginger, cloves, cassia, etc for ayurvedic formulations to treat the pandemic. This is expected to perk up demand for pepper in the coming days, said Kishore Shamji of Kishor Spices.

Meanwhile, the pepper market in Kochi continued to remain steady on Friday at ₹310 per kg for ungarbled varieties. The offtake has improved at 30 tonnes, where 18 tonnes came from Wayanad and the remaining from Idukki.

However, the primary market dealers reported that there was no selling pressure and they attribute the reason to the indefinite closure of educational institutions.

The market could see price fluctuations once the industrial demand picks up. Meanwhile, demand is picking up for Karnataka bolder varieties.