Rumours targeted at bringing pepper prices down led to bearish sentiments on Friday. Market sources told Business Line that rumours are being spread that the 6,000 tonnes of pepper held in warehouses will be released. Besides, industrial buyers are reported to be planning to import pepper and part of it may be pushed into the domestic markets.

Meanwhile, resellers were actively selling semi-processed pepper at ₹700-710 a kg. All these factors have created a bearish sentiment in the market and that, in turn, led to a fall in spot prices on Friday, they said.

There were no trading activities on the national and regional exchanges. Sellers were there at the national exchange platform at ₹70,000 but no buyers came forward. May contracts on the NMCE remained unchanged at ₹71,859 a quintal. On the IPSTA platform, prices ruled steady at ₹63,292 for May contract.

Spot prices were notionally given a ₹1,000 a quintal slip to close at ₹68,000 (ungarbled) and ₹70,000 (garbled) a quintal. Export prices declined to $11,950 c&f for Europe and $12,200 a tonne c&f for the US.

At the same time, an overseas report said the new crop in Sri Lanka is estimated to be 1,000 tonnes. Light berries 200-300 GL are said to have been already traded at $8,300 a tonne c&f India for extraction factories. “This origin seems to be out of market till catch crop in October/November,” the report added.

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