Auctions scheduled for April 5 and 6 at Kumali were cancelled as arrivals were insufficient, sources said. On April 7 auctions were held at Kumali by the Cardamom Processing and Marketing Corporation (CPMC) in which 11,000 kgs of cardamom was sold. Prior to this, auctions were held by CPMS on March 30 in which 9,596 kgs of cardamom was sold at an average price of Rs 609.28 per kg, sources said. Auctions held on April 3 at Vandanmedu by CPMC saw the sale of 7,559 kgs of cardamom at an average price of Rs 598.48 per kg.

Sales scheduled for April 1 and 2 were cancelled by CPMC owing to shortage of cardamom, sources added.

They are of the view that cardamom sales will not last beyond this month as there is little or nothing of new crop pickings to come to the market.

Old stocksavailable will not be enough to meet the auctions requirements, they added. Between last September and this March, a total of 2,229 tonnes of cardamom has been sold through the Kerala and Tamil Nadu auction centres at an average price of Rs 571.82 per kg. During the same period during the last season, 2,820 tonnes of cardamom was sold at these centres at the average price of Rs 250-300 per kg.