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G.K. Nair

KOCHI, June 6

MATTANCHERRY, Kerala's renowned commodities trading centre for centuries in its commercial capital, Kochi, is gradually losing its importance as many of the major traders have moved out to other parts of the State and outside.

``Even the life of the terminal market for pepper is being shortened as there has been a substantial fall in the activities in recent years. As against the normal 20-25 tonnes of pepper used to be traded daily in the May-June period, what is traded today is a meagre 1-3 tonnes,'' Mr Kishor Shamji, President, India Pepper and Spice Trade Association (IPSTA), told Business Line.

The major reasons for the decline are high labour wages and direct buying by exporters from the primary market, he said.

Three of the top 10 exporters have already moved out from Mattancherry; one has shifted operations to Bangalore.

Some have shifted their activities to rural areas where they have already set up modern and mechanised processing facilities.

"In the Cumbum/Theni area of Tamil Nadu too, big processing plants are coming up,'' Mr Shamji said. This shift has resulted in a shrinkage of trading turnover.

According to him, labour militancy in Mattancherry has been on the rise ever since `attimary' was regularised.

When drying of pepper and some other spices is being done in the sun, the workers were being paid wages at agreed rates.

"But now, even if you have a drier to do the job mechanically, you still have to pay the same drying wages and other incentives. It has raised the cost of processing.''

Besides, in the past dealers used to bring pepper to commission agents here for storing without fixing the price for the commodity. Because of the high handling cost, this activity has been wiped out. Now, only 35,000 tonnes of ginger are being stored in Mattancherry.

Ginger trading was shifted to Mattancherry a few years ago when labour costs went up in Alappuzha.

Similarly, high labour costs and other labour-related problems in Kozhikode resulted in the transportation of pepper directly, bypassing the nearby market, from Wayanad to Kochi a few years back.

Now, after such problems started surfacing here, trading activities are being shifted to places such as Vazhakulam, Kalady, Aluva, Kannammaly and Eroor.

"The centuries-old trading centre is fast becoming a ghost town,'' Mr Sanjay Mariwala, a major exporter and director of IPSTA, said.

According to him, scattering of exporters and traders will impact the trade adversely.

"They will be at a disadvantageous position. The basic problems are the high-handedness of headload workers and the `attimary' system. The cost of handling is far higher, which the trading community cannot afford,'' he said.

"The wrong attitude of labour and the Government are predominantly responsible for the situation, which has become worse and trade is suffering.''

It is of late becoming a tourist centre rather than a centre for trading commodities. "Therefore, some planning and intervention by the Government is necessary," Mr Mariwala said.

He added that the IPSTA had been working on resurrecting the market through modernisation of the trading system.

Once Internet trading is introduced, this problem could be alleviated. "But for the growth of the market, the Government has to bring labour under control, besides linking the wages to productivity."

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