John H Elton Inc.’s Post

On Friday, we released our December 8th market report. See the summary below, and reach out to info@jhelton.com if you are interested in receiving the full report. Pepper The market strengthened further. Vietnam is now widely reporting the crop will be late - as well as being smaller than recent harvests. To date their exports this season have exceeded production. There continues to be good interest for Brazil where producing areas are going through a drought making producers reluctant to sell inventories and driving internal speculation. Also shipments from Villa do Conde in the north are delayed as the water levels are too low to allow vessels to navigate. Vietnam's WHITE levels surged; Indonesia also, but not as much. Other Spices It remains uncertain how much lower the Guatemalan CARDAMOM crop will be but harvest was delayed a month; early pickings have been disappointing and now Middle East demand has picked up - stocks need to be covered for Ramadan. CUMIN continues to sag in India. Nigerian GINGER sellers remain mostly absent; India is offering new crop at competitive levels. Turkey has too much OREGANO that cannot be shipped to Europe because of PA - their Government is considering rigid regulations which could undermine this industry if advances on the problem do not happen. POPPY prices are steadily advancing. FDA's concerns about Spanish SAFFRON are still unclear; suppliers are searching for a better understanding.