"We have no immediate plans for the roadshow to popularise the pepper exchange due to the southeast Asian economic crises,'' civil supplies and consumer affairs secretary NN Mookherjee said.

The crises might not evoke the necessary response for the pepper exchange, he said.

The views assume significance since the civil supplies ministry is also pooling in resources for conducting the roadshow abroad.

Besides the civil supplies ministry, the commerce ministry is also expected to chip in with funds for the roadshow.

The International Commodity Exchange for Pepper, which commenced formal trading from November last year, has been severely handicapped by poor foreign participation.

Holding roadshows abroad is part of various plans proposed by the Indian Pepper and Spices Traders' Association (Ipsta), which runs the exchange, to popularise the pepper bourse.

Ipsta chairman R Vidyasagar had said plans were afoot to hold roadshows to attract good response for the exchange in October.

The civil supplies secretary's views mean that the roadshow has been put off to a later date, especially after the economy looks up in the southeastern region.

The roadshow was originally planned to be held in April but had to be put off due to lack of funds.

It was then the civil supplies ministry agreed to meet some of the fund requirements.

At present, with an almost nil foreign participation the pepper bourse is bogged by poor turnover.

The turnover is around 600 tonnes a day, which is in contrast to the excellent response for the domestic futures for pepper, in operation for the last five decades. The domestic futures registered a record turnover last year.

Plans to attract domestic futures operators into the international futures has not met with good response.

Recently, some of the by-laws for the international futures were modified to attract more players.

Besides, a proposal by Ipsta to the government to consider futures trading in US dollar has been referred to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Mookherjee said whatever decision was taken by RBI to allow futures trading in dollar for the International Castor Oil Exchange in Mumbai would apply to the pepper bourse also.