E-auction for cardamom to begin Aug 23

Gone are the days of traditional auction trading in cardamom business. The electronic auction of cardamom is set to begin from August 23 this year, according to Spices Board sources.

Jairam Ramesh, the minister of state for commerce, will officially launch the electronic trading system at Bodinaykannore, a major cardamom center, after a year-long delay in commencing the new system. Spices Board had earlier planned to commence e-auction by the middle of July, and the commerce ministry had tentatively decided to launch trading on July 15.

The new system will be implemented at Bodi in the first phase and later at seven other traditional auction centers, including Kumily, Vandanmedu and Puliyanmala. The first e-auction center will come up at the Cardamom Planters Association's building at Bodi. 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 conducting demonstration camps to various stakeholders. The commerce ministry had mooted the idea of e-auction more than a year back. But delays followed as issues related to the age-old system of trading had to be sorted out.

After the minister had announced this major initiative in June 2006, and later on February 14, 2007, he assured that e-auction would commence in eight weeks time. But the process was delayed cardamom following resistance from some traditional planters. A section of the traders, mainly from Tamil Nadu, had even threatened to boycott trading. Traders said the new system had many practical problems and the Spices Board had so far not initiated any action to sort them out.