Pepper growers, anticipating that the prices would move up to ₹700 a kg due to a smaller crop, were holding back their produce, market sources told BusinessLine .

On the terminal market, 15 tonnes of exchange released pepper were traded at ₹470 a kg and processors were the buyers, they said.

Spot prices moved up further to ₹44,900 (ungarbled) and ₹46,900 (garbled) a quintal. Export prices were at $7,525 a tonne c&f for Europe and $7,825 for the US.