Kerala floods make pepper, cardamom, tea costlier by up to 50%

Tea prices were up 30 per cent last week at auctions, says N Dharmaraj, chief executive at Harrisons Malayalam, one of the large plantation companies in South India

The heavy rain in Kerala and parts of Karnataka have hit the pepper, cardamom, coffee and tea crops, among others. With arrivals low, prices of these commodities have risen by 30-50 per cent and could go up further.

 
Peper, also termed ‘black gold’ was Rs 305 a kg on August 8, when it began raining heavily. It is now Rs 405 a kg. And, import is only allowed for re-export. Similarly, prices of cardamom are now Rs 1,260-1,280 a kg, from the earlier Rs 1,000 a kg. Last year, Kerala was estimated to have produced nearly 25,000 tonnes