North Indian buyers seem to be back on track in the cardamom auction market post-Diwali. This upcountry demand, coupled with active participation of exporters, pushed cardamom prices to higher levels at Thursday's auctions conducted at Bodinayakanur.

North Indian demand has started to come in on a consistent basis, enabling dealers to actively participate. Likewise, sub-dealers catering to exporters were also active when compared with previous weeks, said PC Punnoose, CEO of The Cardamom Planters Marketing Cooperative Society Ltd (CPMCS), the auctioneers. It was the quality arrivals that ensured exporters’ presence and consistent buying by others also made for stability in the market.

Normally, exporters purchase only a particular category between 7 to 8 mm grade at a certain price. They have procured around 10 tonnes from the market. However, he pointed out that arrivals at auctions in volumes had registered a 50 per cent drop from the starting of the current fiscal compared to the last financial year. This emerging situation has forced small-scale dealers not to be active in the market on account of lesser arrivals and higher price realisation.

Meanwhile, the quantity on offer in the morning auctions carried out by CPMCS was 55 tonnes and the average price realised was ₹2,741.73 per kg. There were 260 lots in the auctions and a particular lot received a maximum price of ₹3,002 per kg.

In the auctions conducted by the Cardamom Planters Association (CPA) in the afternoon, the average price realised was ₹2,722.8 per kg and the quantity on offer was 30 tonnes. The maximum price garnered by a particular lot was ₹2,905 per kg.

According to trade analysts Acumen Capital Markets Ltd, the most active cardamom futures gained by 3.24 per cent or ₹83.10 when last traded at ₹2,648 per kg.

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