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The pepper market on Thursday remained highly volatile and moved up despite bearish reports from overseas. However, there was no selling pressure in the producing centres.
Major stockists in Rajasthan were said to be liquidating nearly 2,600 tonnes of pepper held by them on reports from India and abroad of increased production in India and other origins in the coming season. All other dealers spread over other North Indian States, whose pipelines were empty were covering and hence no demand was coming to the terminal market here, market sources told Business Line .
New arrivals
New pepper from Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts started trickling in and immature green pepper suitable for making pepper in brine and dehydrated green pepper are reportedly being bought from these districts by the industry at Rs135 - 150 a kg.
On the spot, six tonnes of pepper were traded at Rs 396, 400, 405 and 408 a kg, depending on the quality, grade and area of production.
September contract on the NCDEX increased by Rs 310 to the last traded price (LTP) of Rs 42,600 a quintal. October and November moved up by Rs 175 and 30 respectively to the LTP of Rs 43,160 and Rs 42,900 a quintal.
Turnover
Total turnover increased by 328 tonnes to close at 1,296 tonnes. Total open interest moved up by two tonnes to 6,724 tonnes.
September and October open interest slipped by 20 tonnes and 22 tonnes respectively to close at 138 tonnes and 5,743 tonnes while November increased by 27 tonnes to 711 tonnes.
Spot prices remained unchanged on limited activities at the previous levels of Rs 39,600 (ungarbled) and Rs 41,100 (garbled) a quintal.
Indian parity in the international market was at $8,175 - $8,200 a tonne (c&f) Europe and $8,475 - $8,500 a tonne (c&f) for the US and remained over $1,000 a tonne above other origins.
Bumper crop?
Reacting to an overseas report quoting the Public Ledger, farmers, dealers and traders here expressed the view that it was too early to project the output in India. They said last year also estimates were made earlier putting the total output at higher levels. But, when the harvesting started it was claimed by farmers to be at somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 tonnes.
The vagaries of weather this year also could play a role. An optimistic projection for the current season could remain somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 tonnes (Karnataka 22,000 - 25,000 tonnes; Kerala 25,000 - 28,000 tonnes and Tamil Nadu 5,000- 7,000 tonnes), trade source told Business Line .
The Public Ledger quoted Rotterdam-based major dealer as claiming that “India expected a bumper crop in 2013 of about 65,000 tonnes, but the crop is likely to be delayed by one month.”
“There will be an abundance of pepper available for the period September to December from the various origins,” it said.
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