Traders see prices to slide further in the coming weeks. The benchmark spot pepper prices opened high at Rs 19,000 per quintal but moved southward since then and hit a low of Rs 18,600 per quintal on Friday. While February futures inched up on hectic covering by exporters, most of the long-end futures closed lower.

Trade sources said the market is experiencing a technical correction leading to the softening of prices. They also said the in anticipation of global glut the traders are keeping a `hand to mouth' approach. To top it all, the Brazilian crisis has kindled the speculation that pepper prices would further decline in the coming months.

However, some traders feel that the devaluation of real is unlikely to have a major bearing on the global pepper market as over 70 per cent of the Brazilian commodity had already arrived in the market. They see the impending arrival ofVietnamese and Indian crop into the market as the major cause for the current chaos.