July 26: Black pepper futures hardened on the international pepper market here during the week ended July 24. Dealers said restricted arrivals and the renewed buying by the US traders were the major factors for hardening prices. They expect the prices to rule high in the coming week also.Traders sources said there has been remarkable shift in the attitude of US buyers during the week.
They said so far the US traders were keeping off from the Indian market following higher prices here and were disposing their inventory. Following this, the pepper inventory of the US merchants was depleted over the last two months forcing them to turn once again to Indian market for sourcing the commodity, they added. However, they said compared to last year there was a small dip in the export of pepper to the US. This, they said is because the US traders are not buying for inventory building and restricting their buying only for immediate consumption following the higher prices.
Even the entry of Indonesian andBrazilian crop was no able to alter the supply situation in the world market, they said.
The spot pepper end high at Rs 22,500 per quintal up from Rs 21,500 per quintal during the week while pepper futures gained in the range of Rs 750 to 1100 per quintal. The contract turnover level has also improved drastically during the week while the supply situation was thin.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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