KOCHI: The National Muti Commodity Exchange of India (NMCE) will launch high varieties of cardamom in futures trading by the last week of February.

Talking to reporters here, Kailash Gupta, managing director of the NMCE, said his was the first commodity exchange to launch cardamom futures for an effective price discovery and price risk management. The NMCE was going to launch Cardamom 7 mm AGEB variety this month. This 7 mm contract would run concurrently with the 6 mm AGB variety on NMCE trading terminal. Most of the AGEB variety - around 90 per cent - was usually meant for export purpose.

Therefore, the NMCE had designed the contract by focussing on export parameters of cardamom bold, and the exchange would follow Agmark special grade with 435 grams per one lighter weight. Its trading unit would be one quintal and moisture content 11 per cent, he explained.

He said that NMCE would be adding two new Central Warehousing Corporation warehouses for the storage of cardamom. The reason behind spotting Vandanmedu warehouse was that its climate was better for cadamom storage, compared to that of Kochi, which would lengthen its shelf-life.

That apart, Vandanmedu is also one of the leading trading hubs for cardamom. Simultaneously, on the Kattappana warehouse, the stocks from Kumili, Rajakumari, and the nearby places of Vandanmedu and Nedumkandam could be reached in a more convenient manner, Mr Gupta pointed out.

He also discounted rumours about the quality of pepper at the NMCE.

He noted that the pepper prices at the National Commodities Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) had been staying above the NMCE pepper prices since July last.

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