Delayed pepper harvest firms up mkt in Kerala, buyers wait & watch

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Kochi: Delayed harvest of pepper in most of the regions due to atypical rains has helped the prices at the market firm up, traders said. Despite the new crop trickling in from southern districts of Kerala, the market has remained steady causing concern for buyers who are left with minimal inventory. “Traditional buyers are surprised by the firmness in the market. They expected the pressure of arrival to depress the market,” Kishore Shamji, prominent spices exporter and president of Indian Pepper and Spice Trade Association (Ipsta) said. Actually, prices across all producing nations have firmed up after the long year-end holidays. “Buyers are adopting a wait-and-watch approach and they will keep off for some more days before buying. But their inventory is so low that they cannot postpone for long,” he added.

Arrivals at the trading centres are also low and not of good quality. Rains and low temperatures in early December delayed the harvest in Idukki and southern Kerala for some days. Harvesting in many places at Idukki has been delayed due to a shortage of labour. “Declining productivity and disease have damaged most of the vines. For many farmers, harvesting the crop with hired labour is has increased costs. So, many of them have left the vines unattended,” an officer at the Idukki district agricultural office told FE. Traders estimate the crop to be around 40,000 - 50,000 tonne. The crop survey conducted by the directorate of cocoa, arecanut and spices development (DASD) estimates the production to touch 51,000 tonne in 2008-09 as against 57,000 tonne in 2007-08.