Cardamom output may dip 15% on heavy rain

Heavy rainfall in the central and southern districts of Kerala has badly hit the production of cardamom this season. The production of the spice is estimated to have declined 15 per cent due to extreme rainfall that caused widespread fungus infection in plantations.

Normally the north-east monsoon that follows the main south-west monsoon begins by the end of October, but this year the rainfall pattern changed with unusual heavy downpour which spoiled majority of the plantations.

Fungus infection is widely prevalent in areas like Kattappana, Vandanmedu, Udumbanchola and Anavilasam and local small and medium farmers are now facing a serious crisis.

According to farmers, due to excess rain plants, offshoots and seeds have rotten. Labour shortage caused a delay in plucking of ripe seeds. The total production may decline to 11,000 tonnes this season from a normal crop of 13,000-13,500 tonnes. The rain has also affected the plucking and processing of cardamom and plucked seeds have also been destroyed due to bad weather.

P J Kuriakose, a grower, told Business Standard that the unfavourable climate would affect the next round of flowering too. There will be two major rounds plucking within a gap of 90 days in this season. But growers said not much crop could be expected in the next rounds of plucking.

Meanwhile, low prices are also a concern for the farmers as the average price in auction sales decreased to Rs 940 a kg. On October 1, average price was Rs 1,011 a kg. The fall in prices is mainly due to seasonal increase in the supply of the spice. But growers allege this is because of the cartel of buyers in various auction centres.

Experts said the bearish mode in cardamom market is rather unexpected as Guatemala, the major global supplier of cardamom, is not aggressive in the market. So there is good local demand, though exports were rather sluggish.