The following excerpt is from a January 10, 2010 article from mydigitalfc.com, out of India. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
(emphasis added)
Since early 2006, cardamom prices have been on an upward trajectory. As the harvesting season ends, there are reports of lower arrivals in the mandis in Kerala, a key cardamom-producing state. Prices of the aromatic spice have already touched a record high of Rs 1,000 per kg. While demand for spice has been consistently on the rise in India, the key reasons for the bullish trend in prices during the last two-three months is higher export demand and fall in production. Since mid-October, when festival demand started picking up, especially in North India, the rates have been shooting up. The major producers of cardamom are Kerala (70 per cent), Karnataka (20 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (10 per cent).
However, Ajitesh Mullick, incharge of agri-research at Religare Commodities, believes that the main reason for the rise in prices is the reported fall in production in Guatemala, where floods in cardamom growing areas have reportedly affected the crop. Reports indicate that production in the Latin American country declined to 14,000-15,000 tonnes in 2009 from 19,000-20,000 tonnes in 2008.
Click here to read the rest of this article, or here to read more about the Guatemalan Economy.
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