(February 25) – New season pepper harvest has been delayed due to heavy late-season rains in both main pepper growing states, Kerala and Karnataka.
According to farmers in the two main pepper growing states, they started harvesting the new crop nearly a month later than every year. Not only because the rainy season came late and ended late due to changes in weather, the output did not meet expectations.
The International Spices Conference held in mid-February this year in Thiruvananthapuram City, the capital of Kerala state, which is the main pepper growing state of India, reported that the world pepper production this year is expected to be about 458,500 tons, up from 386,000 tons in 2016.
India also officially forecasts 2017 pepper production at 55,000 tons compared to 48,5000 tons in 2016, while demand in the domestic market is also estimated in the range of 55,000-60,000 tons.
According to many pepper farmers in Meenangadi (in Wayanad district, Kerala), low productivity and high investment costs make farmers unprofitable, they are expected to switch crops.
We expect a relatively good 2016/2017 crop after last summer’s rain. But the situation has changed dramatically after a failed rainy season. As a result, the crop has been reduced by 30-40%, said a pepper grower in Kottayam district, Kerala.
Meanwhile, pepper growers in the state of Karnataka have access to more scientific farming methods, so they have achieved higher yields and have increased their acreage every year. It is likely that Karnataka state will soon surpass Kerala to become the largest pepper producing state in India. It is known that Karnataka state has 21,061 hectares of pepper planting area in the 2011/12 season and has gradually increased to 32,670 hectares with a production of 35,000 tons in the 2014/15 season.
According to a trader, in this crop, Indian farmers have harvested more than 5,000 tons of green pepper to make brine pepper and nearly double that amount to produce dried green pepper for consumer market demand. .
Spot pepper prices have decreased, from Rs 66,000/quintal for bucket pepper and Rs 69,000/quintal for pre-processed pepper on January 13, down to Rs 58,300/quintal (equivalent to $8,747/ton) and 61,300 Rupees/quintal (equivalent to $9,197/ton) respectively, on February 21, a sharp decrease of Rs 7,700 (about $116) in just 5 weeks.
* According to the report of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, exports in January 2017 reached 8,315 tons of pepper of all kinds, with a turnover of $ 61.63 million, down 9.1% in volume and down 11.8%. in value compared to the previous month, at the same time down 11.4% in volume and 31.0% in value over the same period last year. The average export price of pepper in the period reached 7,412 USD/ton, down 2.87% compared to the average export price of December 2016.
*Exchange rate : 1 USD = 66.6551 Rupees
Follow Anh Van (giacaphe.vn)
Source link
