Pepper firm

The pepper markets on Wednesday ruled steady as demand matched supply. Domestic demand has slackened slightly as the buyers wanted to test if the current uptrend is artificially generated, market sources said. They said the Vietnam Asta prices were steady at $10,200 a tonne c&f US against the Indian parity of $10,575. Pulpally and Bathery (Wayanad) sellers were offering at ₹615 a kg while Coorg sellers were at ₹610. On the terminal market, 26 tonnes of pepper were traded today. Spot prices remained unchanged at ₹60,000 (ungarbled) and ₹63,000 (garbled) a quintal. On the IPSTA platform, all the active contracts also stayed steady. Export prices were at $10,325 a tonne c&f for Europe and $10,575 for the US.