GUATEMALAN cardamom prices have shown renewed strength of late due to ongoing reports that output will be much smaller this year, which have cancelled out other claims that the crop will be ahead of that of 2009/10. Andrew Barker, managing director of PBA Brokerage told The Public Ledger that two conflicting reports have emerged from exporters in Guatemala. One contingent, which has undertaken crop surveys, is convinced that the crop should be more than 24,000 tonnes. As a result, they believe prices will fall at some point in the first quarter of 2011. On the other side, there is a group of exporters that firmly believe the crop will be around 17,000 to 18,000 tonnes, which would match the range estimated for the 2009/10 crop... Read More