Dealers said many export enquiries were materialised during the week and the trend is likely to prevail during the next couple of weeks. They said a major reason for the current bull run in the market was the drastic shortfall in availability of the commodity, both in international and domestic markets.

The dealers added that the growers are not parting with their stocks in anticipation of a further increase in prices."The prices will go up only in the coming few weeks as there will be a yawning gap between the demand and supply", an analyst in IPSTA said.

He said the world demand is slowly turning to India following the crop failure in several South East Asian countries.

"India is the only surplus country of the commodity'', he said adding "the situation looks rosy for growers".

However, with the growers trying to create an artificial scarcity in the market by building up stock inanticipation of further rise in prices, a dealer said that the traders are finding it hard to fulfil their export obligations.