Kochi: Harvesting of the next cardamom crop will start by mid-August due to the delay caused by protracted dry spell during summer followed by heavy rains coupled with strong gales during the delayed south-west monsoon. Since the crop has been delayed and the growers consider the current month Aadi as inauspicious they would now begin picking only on Aadi Perukku, which falls on August 15. Sales though started on July 11 because of the thin arrivals the Cardamom Processing and Marketing Company (CPMC) held only one auction on July 18 at Kumily where the arrivals stood at 16 tonnes.
Tight supply has pushed up the prices by around Rs 40 a kg at the July 18, auction. The maximum price fetched by good colour 8 mm bold was Rs 569.50 a kg and the minimum was Rs 241. The average price stood at Rs 424.35 a kg and that was the highest ever average price during the current season, which is, officially from August 1 to July 31. The total arrivals, therefore, during the current season up to July 18 stood at 8,293 tonnes against 9.751 tonnes during the same period last season. Similarly, the sales also declined by 1,480 tonnes to 7,628 tonnes from 9,108 tonnes. The average price stood at Rs 314.83 a kg compared to Rs 215.22 last season.
About 14 tonnes out of the total arrivals of 16 tonnes was from the carry over stock. Whereas at the second auction of the previous season, the arrivals stood at 40 tonnes as the harvesting commenced in late June 2006 because of favourable weather conditions. The fall in production in the next season in Kerala and Tamil Nadu is likely to be somewhere between 30 per cent and 50 per cent because of the extensive damages caused by the unfavourable weather that so far prevailed in the growing areas.
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