Chillies, cumin seed head north

The prices of red chilli and cumin seed surged while that of cardamom and pepper declined in the commodities market last week.

On the Ncdex, pepper futures rose from the mid-week's low of Rs 9936 and ended the week at Rs 10746. The turnover also perked up to Rs 38384.3 lakh on Friday after declining to Rs 25639.81 lakhs on Wednesday.

The average turnover jumped to Rs 37141.71 lakh as against Rs 24942.84 lakh in the previous week. Open interest, however, remained high during the mid-week but ended the week with 23643 contracts on the Ncdex.

On the MCX, pepper prices ended the week at Rs 10532 after falling to Rs 10043. Turnover recorded a steep rise at Rs 364.4 lakh on Tuesday, as compared with Rs 277.47 lakh on Monday. However, it declined to Rs 95.03 lakh on Friday.

The average turnover, therefore, dropped to Rs 254.51 lakh in the week under consideration as compared with Rs 320.88 lakh a week before.

The disparity in price and turnover on both the exchanges was mainly attributed to the traders abstaining from trading after the technical snag on the Ncdex on October 28, resulting in dramatic price difference in black pepper and chilli.

Apart from fresh bookings from domestic traders at lower prices, Indonesian traders have also rushed towards India for meeting exports commitments to the US and they are offering higher prices to the tune of $2600, a market source said.

Red chilli jumped marginally to Rs 6018 on MCX, after declining to Rs 5860 during the mid-week.

Moving in tandem with the prices, the turnover of red chilli shot up substantially to Rs 42.31 lakh on Friday as compared with Rs 9.01 lakh on Monday.

The average turnover surged to Rs 23.39 lakh in the week as compared with Rs 6 lakh previously. Open interest on the exchange also recovered its early loss at 35000 contracts on Friday from the lower level of 25000 contracts on Tuesday.

Chillies touched a high of Rs 5018 in Friday on the Ncdex compared with Rs 4749 on Monday. The average turnover was at Rs 12404.29 lakh on the Ncdex as against the average turnover of Rs 10312.25 lakh during the previous week.

The open interest during the week declined to 19220 contracts towards the end of the week as compared with 20405 contracts in the beginning and 20895 contracts in the mid-week.

The fundamentals remain strong for red chilli due owing to the unavailability of good quality stocks.

Cardamom was lacklustre during the week with physical prices declining from Rs 451.5 on Monday to Rs 435.5 on Friday. The average price declined to Rs 435.5 from Rs 446.5.

The average turnover stood at Rs 4515.83 lakh on the MCX as compared with Rs 3710.43 lakh in the previous week. The open interest also jumped substantially to 558000 contracts on Friday from 574500 contracts on Monday.

Many stockists have started building their positions high to grab a large share of the export market, thus pushing the prices up. During the period from June to November in 2005, the total production, according to trade sources, was estimated between 15,000-18,000 tonne, while Spices Board has put it at 13,000 tonne.

During the same period, the domestic consumption was around 14,000 tonne. The fundamentals for cardamom still remain strong, as there is a shortfall in supply globally.

Cumin seed perked up to Rs 7982 on Friday from Rs 7797 on Monday on the MCX resulting in a dramatic surge in average price at Rs 7982 this week compared with Rs 7809 last week. On the Ncdex, however, the jeera price perked up to Rs 8943.90 per quintal towards the end of the week as compared with Rs 8631.20 per quintal in the beginning.

Average jeera turnover at MCX jumped dramatically to Rs 227.17 lakh as compared with Rs 72.16 lakh in the previous week.

In contrast, average jeera turnover on the Ncdex, slipped to Rs 13466.10 lakh in the week under consideration compared with Rs 22628.04 lakh in the previous week.

Anticipating rise in production, bears continued their hold over the market throughout the week resulting in a price decline of about Rs 100 to Rs 2106.45 per quintal in the spot market in Nizamabad on Friday as compared with Rs 2201.80 per quintal on Monday.

The production this year is estimated 44-46 lakh bags (70 kg each) this year as against 38-40 lakh bags last year. The prices are expected to decline owing to the fall in demand from the UAE and Bangladesh.