Cardamom Prices Plunges To 75 Tonnes in FY10-11.

The import of cardamom from Guatemala, US, is not very significant as per the data of Spices Board of India and that the prices of cardamom has shown a decline in the last few days with no specific reason.

“Spices Board is closely monitoring the price situation,” Dr S S Thampi, deputy director, Spices Board of India, informed FnB News in a chat over telephone.

The Board expressed that the prevalent market conditions did not warrant any such decline. The auction arrivals in the current crop season (July 2010 to first week of May 2011) is 9461 tonnes against 8,975 tonnes in the same period of the last season. It has recorded only five per cent increase in the arrivals.

The import of cardamom for FY10-11 is around 75 tonnes as against 95 tonnes in 2009-10. However, it has been reported that the production in Guatemala was around 20,000 tonnes against their normal production figure of 27,000 to 30,000 tonnes.

Therefore, the export figures from Guatemala have shown a steady decline from 27,961 tonnes in 2007 to 23,693 tonnes in 2009 and further to 22,167 tonnes in 2010. The reduced export figures confirm the production decline in Guatemala as they have practically no domestic consumption.

With regard to Indian cardamom export, Thampi explained that the overall exports have been growing since four years as there is global demand of Indian cardamom, people are buying Indian cardamom at higher price in international markets and now there is availability of lesser Indian grades which international market can opt for as compared to before.

Source : fnbnews.com