The cardamom farmers in Kerala are facing a bleak future this season. An extreme four-month dry spell has damaged at least 40 per cent of the cardamom plants in Kerala's hilly Idukki district.

There had been summer showers last month in the cardamom growing regions.

"But that has not helped the plants as the unprecedented dry spell has damaged some plantations heavily," T Ashok Kumar, president, Kerala Cardamom Growers Union told Commodity Online.

He said an estimated 30-40 per cent of the plants in the region have dried up.

"This would result in the decline in output in the next season. It is likely that there will be a production decline of 40 per cent and 60 per cent," he said.

The current season's production is estimated to be between 9,000 tonnes and 10,000 tonnes.

Total arrivals as on May 2 stood at 7,511 tonnes against 8,636 tonnes in the same period the previous season.

The cardamom output had reached its highest ever level of 12,540 tonnes in 2005-06. It was 11,415 tonnes in 2004-05 and 11,580 tonnes the year before.

The Kerala production in 2005-06 increased to 9,765 tonnes from 8,616 tonnes in 2004-05. The contribution from Karnataka dropped to 1,775 tonnes from 1,879 tonnes while that of Tamil Nadu increased marginally to 1,000 tonnes from 920 tonnes in 2004-05.

Exports from the country declined from 1,545 tonnes in 2000-01 to 875 tonnes in 2005-06 and about 550 tonnes last fiscal. Where as, the country had imported 482 tonnes in April 2006- February 2007 against 327 tonnes in the same period previous year.

An increasing domestic demand and higher prices are pointed out as the reason for the decline in the exports last fiscal.