Spice

Chilli:Spot red chilli slipped Rs 100/quintal at the main market Guntur in Andhra Pradesh due to bearish trend in the futures market and heavy arrivals in the spot markets. The Guntur market witnessed arrivals of 1.10 lakh bags of red chilli today. Traders from Bangladesh, Malaysia and Sri Lanka purchased 25,000 bags. India is likely to produce 13.5 lakh tonnes of red chilli this year. Last year the production was of 11.5 lakh tonnes. The higher prices of red chilli during the first quarter of 2007 have encouraged farmers to take more interest in red chilli crop. AP will produce 10 to 15 per cent more crop while the output from Madhya Pradesh is likely to grow by almost 50 per cent. Demand from both international and domestic markets continues to be marginally weak. The new crop of red chilli has started arriving further reducing the demand from eastern countries.

Jeera:spot jeera traded down Rs 100/quintal in the domestic market. At the main spices market Unjha in Gujarat, NCDEX quality jeera traded at Rs 9,700/quintal while average quality was offered Rs 9,200/quintal. Fears of jeera crop getting damaged have increased following heavy rains and cloudy weather in more jeera-growing areas like Jaisalmer and Barmer, after Jodhpur district. Rains are still reported to be continuing in Jodhpur and Naguar region. The cloudy weather is more dangerous than rains for the jeera crop. Due to cloudy weather, jeera crop is prone to be infected by insects while quality also suffers. Meanwhile, traders from Singapore are placing trade enquiring for Indian variety of jeera. The deals were reportedly done at USD2,500/tonne FOB Mudra port..

Mentha Oil:Mentha oil prices were quoted marginally positive in leading spot markets across Uttar Pradesh. Spot mentha oil slipped as demand weakened at higher prices. However traders believe mentha oil prices may get support in coming days as arrival of mentha flakes from Jammu and Kashmir has come to a halt following government's move to abolish product tax. However traders believe that the upward momentum seen currently may not sustain considering the good progress of new crop and lack of persistent demand in the market. Arrival in major spot markets today stood at nearly 200 drums

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