The pepper market continued to remain in the grip of ‘a bull operator’s cartel’ last week which has been trying for long to squeeze and corner the market.

Having cornered over 3,000 tonnes of pepper, it has been keeping the market bullish pushing the prices up even when there has neither been any support from the domestic market nor from the overseas. Other origins have been showing easier trend on increased availability.

The staggered delivery system introduced in exchange here is seems to have helped small and medium players who could sell further new quantities.

In the domestic market, much of the north Indian demand is met by supplies from Rajasthan-based stockists who are reportedly selling black pepper at Rs 400-405 a kg. Therefore, no demand has so far been coming to the terminal market here.

However, from mid-Oct domestic demand is expected to pick up as the purchases for Diwali and the winter would begin soon. Besides, it is the time for the crushing/grinding industry to buy, they said.

Arrivals have started picking up. The new crop is expected to trickle in from mid-Dec. The crop is expected to be at around 60,000 tonnes this season and peak arrival period is normally from Dec to Feb/Mar. According to growers in Wayanad, protracted dry spell this year has resulted in falling of spikes. But, those spikes which withstood the vagaries of the weather are full of berries. Similar situation is said to be prevailing in several other growing areas. However, the overall output is said to be better than that of last season, they said.

Last week witnessed depositing of more and more material in the exchange platform and as a result, exchange stocks have gone up to around 4,200 tonnes.

Pepper marked for staggered delivery was at 1,574 tonnes on Friday closing.

Good material was coming from Idukki district of Kerala, and the new crop is expected to arrive from mid-Dec, market sources told Business Line . Already on an average 20-25 tonnes of immature pepper were being sold a week from Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts to manufacturers of pepper in brine and dehydrated green pepper at Rs 120-125 and Rs130 a kg. This was being sold at Rs 135-150 a week ago, primary market sources said. Supplies from Pathanamthitta are yet to begin, they said.

All the contracts on the NCDEX last week increased on bullish activities. Oct, Nov and Dec contracts went up by Rs 685, Rs 515 and Rs 1,340 a quintal to Rs 43,690, Rs 43,590 and Rs 43,200.

Total turn over decreased by 3,577 tonnes to 8,695 tonnes. Total open interest moved up by 75 tonnes to 7,544 tonnes.

Spot prices also increased in tandem with the futures market trend and buying interest by Rs 600 a quintal to Rs 40,600 (ungarbled) and Rs 42,100 (garbled).

Indian parity in the international market remained at around $8,500 a tonne (c&f) and remained totally out priced being much above other origins.

Vietnam exports

According to Vietnam Pepper Statistics there was record export of pepper during Jan-Sep 2012. The world's top producer of pepper exported 93,551 tonnes of pepper consisting of 80,433 tonnes of black pepper and 13,118 tonnes of white pepper. Compared to the same period of 2011, export volume has dropped by 10.8 per cent at 11,291 tonnes. However, export turnover has increased by 7.3 per cent i.e., $43.7 million.

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