The small cardamom markets last week remained by and large unchanged on dull activities at the auctions held in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Thin arrivals coupled with slack demand because of the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Kerala could be attributed to the sluggishness in the market, PC Punnoose, General Manager, CPMC, told BusinessLine.

During the past 3-4 years, the crop was available because of favourable weather conditions. However, the situation has changed this year and due to the drought conditions and the harvest having ended in March there is going to be a gap of four months for the next crop to enter the market, he said. This phenomenon is helping the market to stay stable at present, trade sources said.

Exporters were not active and what they bought was of negligible volume, they said. At the Cardamom Planters’ Association auction on Monday in Bodinayakannur, the arrivals stood at 17.7 tonnes and of this 15.6 tonnes were sold. The individual auction average was at ₹657.56 a kg.

Arrivals last week fell to 260 tonnes from 515 tonnes the previous week. The individual auction average remained by and large steady and was vacillating between ₹655 and ₹720 a kg, trade sources said.

Total arrivals during the season up to May 21 were at around 29,535 tonnes and sales were at 28,458 tonnes. The individual auction average stood at ₹609.56/kg.

Prices in ₹/kg: 8mm bold good colour 1,100-25; 7-8 mm 800-825; 6-7 mm 650; below 6 mm: 580-600. Good bulk was being traded at ₹680-725.

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