Cardamom prices in India: how the e-auctions, grades and seasons work

What this guide covers

Cardamom prices in India are set every working day in electronic auctions, and they can swing by hundreds of rupees a kilo within weeks. This guide explains where the price on our cardamom page comes from, how the auctions work, how cardamom is graded, why prices rise and fall over the year, and how to read the numbers, using the Spices Board's own auction results for the last twelve months.

Small and large cardamom: two different crops

Small (green) cardamom, Elettaria cardamomum, is the spice used in tea, sweets and biryani. Its capsules are small, green and strongly aromatic. In India it grows mainly in the hills of Kerala, above all Idukki district, with smaller areas in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Guatemala and India are the world's two biggest producers.

Large cardamom, Amomum subulatum, is a different plant with bigger, dark brown capsules and a smoky taste, used in savoury dishes and spice blends. It grows in Sikkim, the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal and parts of the north-east, and trades in markets such as Singtam (Sikkim) and Siliguri (West Bengal). Its two common trade grades are badadana (bold) and chotadana (smaller capsules). The two crops have separate prices; our page shows both.

How the e-auctions work

Most small cardamom from growers is sold through e-auctions run by auctioneers licensed by the Spices Board, a body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The auctions are held at the Spices Park in Puttady, Kerala, and at Bodinayakanur in Tamil Nadu. Growers and collectors bring their cardamom to an auctioneer, who pools it into lots; registered dealers and exporters then bid for each lot online.

After each auction the Spices Board publishes the auctioneer's name, the number of lots, the quantity that arrived, the quantity sold, the highest price, and the average price, all per kilogram. Those published results are the source of every small cardamom figure on our site. Prices are wholesale: what dealers pay for ungraded cardamom at auction, before cleaning, grading, packing and retail margins.

Highest, average and the day's price

The highest price in an auction is what the single best lot fetched: usually the boldest, greenest capsules. The average covers everything sold in that auction, good lots and weak ones, so it is the better guide to the market. Several auctions often run on the same day. To give one figure per day, we weight each auction's average by the quantity it sold, so a large auction counts for more than a small one.

The quantity sold divided by the quantity that arrived shows how keen buyers were: when most of the arrivals sell, demand is firm; when a large share is left unsold, sellers are holding out for better bids or buyers are cautious.

How cardamom is graded

In trade, small cardamom is graded mainly by colour and size. The greener the capsule and the larger it is, the more it fetches. Trade names you will see include Alleppey Green Extra Bold (AGEB) and Alleppey Green Bold (AGB) for the largest capsules, with sizes stated in millimetres (for example 8 mm and above, 7-8 mm, 6-7 mm). Colour fades with poor drying and storage, so bright green, evenly sized capsules sell at a premium over pale, split or mixed lots.

Auction lots are not yet graded the way retail packets are, which is one reason auction averages are lower than the prices of graded cardamom in shops.

Why the price moves over the year

Small cardamom is harvested in rounds, roughly from August to February, when arrivals at the auctions are heaviest. Weather in the growing hills matters a great deal: too little rain, or too much at the wrong time, cuts the crop and lifts prices months later. Demand from the festival and wedding seasons, export orders, and the size of the crop in Guatemala also play a part. Day to day, the price reflects how much arrived and how many buyers turned up.

Our page and our weekly market reports show what the auctions did; they do not guess the reasons for a particular move. The tables below show how the last twelve months actually went.

The last twelve months at the auctions

Over the last 12 complete months, the monthly average auction price ranged from ₹2,288 per kg in March 2026 to ₹3,135 in September 2026. The most cardamom was sold in November 2025 (4,126 tonnes) and the least in June 2026 (2,369 tonnes).

The table is worked out from every published small cardamom auction: the average is weighted by the quantity sold, and the best lot is the highest price paid for any lot that month. It updates by itself as new auctions are published.

The latest auctions

On the latest auction day in our records (14 Oct 2026), the average was ₹3,115 per kg, the best lot fetched ₹4,326, and 249.6 tonnes were sold across 2 auctions. Today's figures, a 30-day table and charts are on our cardamom price page.

Buying and storing cardamom at home

Shop prices are always above the auction average: cleaning, grading, packing, transport and retail margins are added along the way. When comparing packets, look at the grade or size, the colour (bright green is fresher) and whether the capsules are whole. Keep cardamom in an airtight container, away from light and moisture; whole capsules hold their aroma far longer than ground cardamom, so grind only what you need.

How to read our cardamom page

The headline is the day's average for small cardamom, weighted by the quantity sold. Under it are the day's highest and lowest lots, the quantity sold and the number of auctions; then each auction separately, the price change against the previous auction day, a week and a month earlier, charts, and a table of recent auction days. Large cardamom prices from Singtam and Siliguri appear lower down, with their own date. Every figure comes from the Spices Board's published results, shown with the date of the auction it belongs to.

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