Hiding out from the frightful sun. The mornings and evenings are better, but the afternoon sun is perhaps even more poisonous than Singapore. (Granted I'm rarely toting 30 pounds of camera gear around Singapore)
This morning we took a long hike through the bazaar-quarters area of Kochi while the morning sun was still warm and good for photography. The two mile stretch was full of wholesale trader shops opening for business between nine and ten AM. I misread the sun and it was in our face most of the time, so I had to keep turning around for shots. Later in the week we'll take the same route from the reverse direction.
Eventually reached the area of Kochi referred to as 'Jew Town' (there is genuinely ancient Jewish synagogue and cemetery there). That's the center for all the spice trading in Kerala.
It's also home to the Kochi International Pepper Exchange. I bought a ticket to go onto the 'trading floor' for ten Rupees. Ten rupees is about $0.21USD. I went upstairs of the modest building and heard the open outcry commotion. Imagine a dismal office room built in the style of Sardis Elemtary School -- low, acoustic tile-panel ceilings, faitgued flourescent lights, and 1'x1' asbestos tiles. It wasn't exactly the NYMEX or the IPE. It looked more like a Glengarry Glen Ross set, except no desks, just an empty floor and some hemi-semi-demi cubicles along the walls that served as the floor brokers' phone booths. The brokers were the same easygoing, simple folks that fill Kerala -- dressed casually in their muhtis (I think this is the term for the half-sarong-skirts they wear) and other Keralan styles.
Superficially , it seemed woeful that this is the international center for Pepper Price Discovery, but as far as I could make out by observation and conversations w/ the brokers, it had all the necessary fundamentals of an efficient futures exchange. There looked to be about twenty(?) floor brokers. I don't know if there is a role for 'Locals.' It was generally quiet, just guys sitting milling around, but then orders were called in, there would be an eruption of haggling between brokers in some Indian dialect, and a deal(s) would be concluded. I didn't make out that they used hand signals (it was almost too small, quiet to require them). I also didn't notice any sort of referees. At the very far end of the room was a cmall CRT displaying current markets.
To me and my ego's significant dismay the traders were far more interested in my tiny exilim digital camera (which I was using to be inconspicuous) than the fact that there was a Wall Street commodities trader observing their floor.
I'm afraid I temporarily interupted World Pepper Price Discovery. Half the brokers were milling around looking at the photos with a suprising degree of amazement. As good traders they quickly were trying to figure out its price in rupees. Trading came to a standstill.
I didn't learn everything I wanted to there. It was a bit hard conversing w/ the guys. It did sound like there was both hedging and speculating going on. That the speculators came from Kerala state, not very international. One fellow I was talking to had been trading physical pepper since 1978. As well, recognized me trying to ask if they traded timespreads and whatever the equivalent of a pepper 'crack' was, and said indeed they did. Like all brokers, he complained that volumes were down.
I'd like to go back and talk more to these guys, and perhaps I will later this week. The biggest mystery so far is the fact that posted on the notice board downstairs is a listing of all the traders' net positions by contract!?!?! Why this is public information is beyond me, and I have to think it goes a long way to squelching trading volume.
The connection I'm using here is pretty slow {I understand that there is some sort of internet 'worm' plaguing cyberspace right now. To what degree to blame the worm as opposed to Indian telecomms and this ancient NT box (with the brand name, 'Remnant' [no shit...]) I am not sure} It is preventing me from supplementing this entry with some exciting AV materials I've collected, including an audio track of the open outcry pepper exchange! May have to wait until we return to Singapore on Sunday.
Anyhow, life is quite mellow and pleasant... Photography, coffees, books, walking, and frequent changes of clothes is my day here.
Regards