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Informist, Tuesday, Jul. 7, 2026

 

--NCDEX: To relaunch black pepper futures contracts from Jul. 15 

 

MUMBAI – The National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd. will relaunch its black pepper futures contracts for trading from Jul. 15 to enable price discovery and hedge volatility in the market. The exchange had launched the black pepper futures contract over a decade ago but had to discontinue it amid liquidity and quality issues as well as consequent court cases.

 

"We will launch contracts for August, September, October, and November (on Jul. 15), and more contracts will be available later," NCDEX said at the relaunch event in Kochi, Kerala. Black pepper futures contracts will be available for trading through out the year, except February as it is considered a lean month. 

 

Upon the expiry of the contract, all the outstanding open positions shall result in compulsory delivery at Kochi, NCDEX said. However, NCDEX has limited its delivery centre to only Kochi and has dropped the additional delivery centres--Calicut in Kerala, and Hassan in Karnataka--it had before the suspension. 

 

Although Kerala was hostorically the top pepper producing state, Karnataka has emerged as the leading grower in recent years, NCDEX said. However, prominent pepper trading and processing hubs remain in Kerala. "Pepper is among India's most historically significant traded commodities, and Kochi has long anchored its price discovery. With no active global derivatives benchmark currently available for black pepper, the relaunch fills a genuine and long-standing gap," Kedar Deshpande, chief business officer, NCDEX, said. 

 

In the absence of a regulated derivatives benchmark for black pepper, the exchange hopes to attract participation across the value chain from farmers, processors, traders, and exporters. The exchange aims to make India the price setter, given that the country is a major producer of the commodity. Currently, Vietnam is the basis centre for international pricing.

 

"The relaunch of Black Pepper Futures is an effort to bring that benchmark home to create a transparent, credible and India-centric reference price for the trade," Arun Raste, managing director and chief executive officer, NCDEX, said. The minimum unit of trading would be 1 tonne and prices would be quoted in rupees per 100 kg. 

 

With in-principle approval from Securities and Exchange Board of India to enter the equity and equity derivatives segments, NCDEX is preparing to launch a mutual fund platform following a successful fund raise of INR 7.70 billion, the exchange said.  End

 

Reported by Afra Abubacker and Abhijit Doshi 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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