Pepper Futures Continue To Fall

Kochi: The fall in pepper futures remained last week with the prices declining by Rs 193 to Rs 308 a quintal on the exchanges on bearish activities and alleged manipulations. The turnover on NCDEX fell by 165 tonnes during the last week to 72,884 tonnes. Open interest increased by 118 tonnes to 19,883 tonnes. October position declined by 1,180 tonnes to 7,576 tonnes, while November moved up by 759 tonnes and December by 443 tonnes to 2,753 tonnes. On NMCE, the turnover dropped by 2,719 tonnes to 4,976 tonnes. Open interest increased by 206 tonnes to 2,002 tonnes. Spot prices also declined by Rs 300 a quintal during the last week to close at Rs 11,700 (un-garbled) and Rs 12,300 (MG 1) despite no selling pressure.

An overseas report during the last week said that with reported lower pepper output in India, Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia, the total production this year is estimated at 2,11,000 tonnes as against 2,66,000 tonnes in 2006. The continuous fall in Indian prices when the fundamentals in the international market remaining unchanged is viewed by the trade world over with concern as it was influencing the prices of all the other origins. According to International Pepper Community (IPC) report for the week, black pepper market continued to remain quiet. In India, there was trading activity mainly for November contract. Prices at local market were relatively stable compared to last week, but in dollar terms, increased by 1 per cent due to weakening of the dollar against the local currency. The spot price of un-garbled black pepper at Kochi eased during the week from Rs 11,800 a quintal to Rs 11,700 at the week's close. In Vietnam, prices were reported stable. At Daklak, prices for raw material were VND 46,000 a kg this week.

In Bangka, local prices eased by around IDR 1,000 from IDR 39,000 a kg last week. In Sarawak, white pepper prices at local market also eased marginally from MYR 14,684 a tonnes to MYR 14,658 a tonnes at the week's close. F.o.b price was stable at $5,400 a tonnes this week.In Hainan, China, local and f.o.b prices eased by around 2 per cent to $4,320 a tonnes and $4,520 a tonnes respectively.