Cardamom e-auction set for launch in mid-July

A year after the Minster of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh made his announcement, the Spices Board is all set to start e-auction in cardamom by mid-July. The commerce ministry has tentatively decided to launch the e-auction on July 15 at Bodinaykannore, one of the major auction centres in Tamil Nadu.

V J Kurien, chairman, Spices Board, said the new trading system would be implemented at Bodi in the first phase and later at seven other traditional auction centres, including Kumily, Vandanmedu and Puliyanmala.

The first e-auction centre will be set up in the building of the Cardamom Planters Association at Bodi, and all infrastructure, including hardware and software, will be provided by the board. The board had started the auction on a trial basis a few weeks back and is, currently, holding demonstration camps for various stakeholders.

Kurien added that the Spices Board would move cautiously on the new system as e-auction in tea trading had failed miserably. The e-auction in cardamom was delayed because of sorting out issues related to the old trading system.

The minister had announced this major initiative in cardamom trading in June, 2006, and later, on February 14, 2007, he assured that it would commence in eight weeks time. But, according to sources, the Spices Board is not absolutely sure if the new system would start on July 15.

"The minister has already announced the date, and we expect to start on that date. We are working on it," he said, hinting at further delays. There are also apprehensions raised by traders that it may not be promising to launch the new platform in Karkkidakam (the last month of the Malayalam calendar) and should be postponed to the new year.

Meanwhile, a section of cardamom traders, mainly from Tamil Nadu, has protested against the new trading system.

V Subramanian, president, Indian Cardamom Merchants Welfare Association, said that e-auction faced many practical issues and the Board had so far not initiated any action to sort out these problems. Even during the demonstration, conducted at Kochi, only one member of the association could attend the class due to short notice.

He said the board had to conduct such camps in various auction centres so that all stakeholders are familiar with the system.

The board has so far not contacted the association or traders in order to facilitate the smooth functioning of the system.