Rally continues in pepper

The spot pepper prices continued to show an upward trend on Thursday on good buying interest amid tight availability. Meanwhile, strengthening of the rupee is likely to raise the chances of import from other origins especially from Sri Lanka, trade sources told Business Line . On the terminal market 12 tonnes were traded. Of these 7 tonnes from Wayanad district were traded at ₹703 a kg while 5 tonnes of high range material were traded at ₹710 a kg, they said. Spot prices moved up by ₹100 a quintal to close at ₹69,500 (ungarbled) a quintal and ₹72,500 (garbled) a quintal. July, August and September contracts on the IPSTA remained unchanged at ₹72,000, ₹71,000 and ₹69,000 a quintal. Indian export prices were at $11,050 a tonne c&f for Europe and $11,300 a tonne c&f for US.