Nod for dollar trading in pepper exchange

By Our Special Correspondent

KOCHI, JULY 26. The international commodity exchange of the India Pepper and Spice Trade Association (IPSTA) here has received the go ahead signal for dollar trading in pepper futures.

The Mumbai-based Forward Markets Commission has given the required permission which was being awaited for so long by the International Commodity Exchange (ICE) here. This would facilitate dollar denominated futures trading in pepper.

According to Mr. Kishor Shamji, president, IPSTA, all the 31 members of the ICE had been advised to open dollar accounts with the clearing banks. The members included multinational companies such as AVT McCormick, Cochin Spices and Harmony Spices. The clearing banks were Indus Ind and Global Trust Bank, he said.

The trading at the ICE would be with international parity and in course of time it would attract foreign players too, it is claimed. The IPSTA would popularise the concept amongst the foreign parties, he said. The International Pepper Community (IPC) had already asked for a project report for propagating the ICE amongst its members and the IPSTA was in the process of preparing it, he added.

Initially there might not be any on-line trading. However, it would commence soon once the required softwares were installed. The IPSTA had already shortlisted five software providers from which one would be selected by its `On-line Committee' in the coming days, he said.

However, the IPSTA would face financial constraints in introducing on-line trading and getting its concept across to the global players trading in pepper. Implementation of both these projects involved heavy investment and the IPSTA did not have the required resources, he said. The Association had already invested around Rs. 20 lakhs for the ICE. The IPSTA was approaching international organisations such as UNCTAD and International Fund for Commodities, apart from IPC, he said.

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