Cardamom E-Auction Unveil On Aug 23

New Delhi: A new initiative of the Spices Board to ensure clearness in cardamom trading in the country for the benefit of small growers via the electronic auction (e-auction) system will be unveiled at Bodinayakanur in Tamil Nadu on August 23. The Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, will unveil the programme at Bodinayakanur as it accounts for 80 per cent of the traders in this commodity and 21 per cent of the total cardamom auctioned. Devised with the support of the Tata Consultancy Services, Bangalore in a bid to promote healthy competition for buys, the Spices Board has proposed the introduction of e-auction in cardamom to revamp the extant manual operations at par with modern technologies. The board is planning to establish common cleaning / grading / packing facilities in association with auctioneers which would help the traders/bidders to sell the material bought in the auction to the purchasers without further cleaning/ grading, thereby save time and costs.

Cardamom is the mainstay crop for many thousands of farmers in Kerala (75 per cent), Karnataka (15 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (10 per cent), spread over the Western Ghats. The volume of business in the auction centres in 2006-07 was 7,939 tonnes and the average price realised at the auction centres is Rs 313.02 per kg last year. Kerala accounts for the maximum quantity of cardamom auctioned, followed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. In 2006-07, total production of cardamom (small) was 11,535 tonnes of which 7,939 tonne was auctioned. Out the estimated 40,500 number of farmers involved in the production of cardamom, nearly 27,000 sell their produce via the auction system. Export of cardamom last fiscal was 650 tonnes.