The Cardamom auction is likely to take a hit in the near future with several traders backing off from the floor. Only licensed traders are being allowed to take part in the auction process from June 1. Owing to this, tussles have broken out between licensed and non-licensed traders at various auction centres. Considering the fact that there are only 20-25 per cent licensed traders participating in auction the situation is going to be tense in the coming days. Experts point out that this will lead to manipulation of prices and ultimately stoppage of auction.
P J Kunjachan, Member, Spices Board, said that the licensed traders are teaming up against the non-licensed ones to keep the latter away from auctioning. “Since the number of licensed traders are only 20-25 per cent the participation in cardamom auction will be lower. The problem is very serious as this will affect the total auctioning process and led to manipulation of cardamom price,” he added. According to sources in the industry, the traders from Tamilnadu are creating problems to disrupt the entire auction process.
Spices Planters’ Association, General Secretary, M M Lambodharan said that for smooth auction process and better price discovery the number of traders should be more. “There are genuine buyers among non-licensed traders. If the entire auction process is restricted to a minority, anything including the collapse of the entire auction system can happen in the sector,” he pointed out.
As of now there are only seven spices board licensed auction centres in the country. It is learnt that Spices Board is in the process of allotting new licenses by September 1, 2014.
“The entire auction system is beneficial only for the traders ,” a top official of an auction firm said.