Spurt in Cardamom Futures Leaves Bad Taste in Exporters Mouth.

Mumbai, Feb 16 (PTI) The sudden spurt in cardamom futures due to alleged price manipulation by stockists and private auctioneers in South India has put exporters with forward orders in a fix. Last week, the cardamom futures at MCX Exchange shot up to Rs 789 per kg for Feb futures, and Rs 835 for March futures, while spot price was Rs 740 per kg. It has been alleged that this price increase was due to manipulation by private auctioneers in South India. "The price shot up due to manipulators buying only MCX quality from the market at premium during auction, and then creating self buying and selling of the stock in auctions.

Private auctioneers seem to be involved with manipulators," cardamom trader-cum-exporter Mohan Shah said here. Nearly 65 per cent of the cardamom crop is still with local planters and traders are unable to sell their produce at these artificially hiked prices, Shah said.

Cardamom auction, which was to be conducted at South Indian Green Cardamom Company Ltd premises at Kochi, is facing a boycott by major auction participants. This is because traders are fed up with alleged manipulations by private auctioneers over the last 15 days, Shah said. The auction quantity was brought down from 1 lakh kgs to 70,000 kgs at Kochi. Most of the traders have unofficially boycotted these private auctions, alleging that the auction conductors are manipulating the prices and stocks. This is the peak period for Indian export of cardamom.

Unfortunately, recent jump in Indian cardamom market may affect the export badly as international buyerss are shying away from India and preferring Guatemala crop, Shah said. "This will impact the planters who are holding around 70 per cent of their crop even now as there are no actual physical buyers. As exports dry up, they will suffer the most, as the crop will find no takers in later months even at prices which may be Rs 150 lower than present levels," he said. India is the second-largest producer of cardamom after Guatemala. Last year, India's total cardamom output stood at 20,000 tonnes.

Source : ibnlive.in.com