Black pepper prices in India’s domestic market are falling due to low demand, especially in the major consuming markets in the North, where illegal imports are believed to be on the rise. Business Line.
Kishor Spices warehouse in Kochi
Mr. Kishore Shamji, owner of Kishor Spices in Kochi, said that major pepper markets such as Patna, Ranchi, Lucknow, Varanasi, Indore, Delhi … were flooded with smuggled Vietnamese pepper, as well as seeds. Sri Lankan pepper goes through the border of Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh. He accused some traders in these areas of running after illegal imports to evade taxes.
Pepper price has decreased by Rs 15/kg between December 31 and Jan 10 and the price is currently fluctuating at Rs 351/kg for bucket pepper and Rs 371/kg for processed pepper ( nearly 5,700 USD/ton). While the import price of Vietnamese black pepper is at $2,800/ton, Sri Lanka is at $3,800/ton and Brazil is at $2,000/ton.
Lower inbound volumes have squeezed supply in the market, even as the 2019 crop has been delayed by more than 60 days due to climate, floods, landslides and strong winds that have shed strings and delayed ripening seeds.
When natural disasters damaged the growing pepper chains, making estimates of a bountiful harvest of about 70,000-90,000 tons were wrong, forcing a downward adjustment of crop estimates. This has slowed down the pepper harvest. Usually, September-October is considered the time to harvest immature peppers for the dried green pepper industry as well as brine pepper in very significant quantities.
During this period, the industry often offers forward contracts with buyers to meet the needs of the Christmas and New Year season.
However, with reduced cargo volumes and delayed harvests, the export green pepper industry’s futures contracts have become unfulfilled, added Mr. Kishore Shamji.
When illegal imports started to annoy domestic growers, Mr. K.Shamji reiterated growers’ request to make every effort to contain this threat, as India just started the annual pepper season. now.
In some pepper growing areas in the southern state of Kerala, the appearance of old pepper and a little ripe pepper has begun, in the context of limited new pepper availability and dwindling stock of the old crop.
KK Vishwanath, Coordinator of the Black Pepper Farmers’ Organization, said international prices are also falling due to overcapacity.
The harvest in the state of Kerala has begun and is followed in about 2-3 months by the harvest in the state of Karnataka, promising abundant inventories. However, some smallholder farmers are still holding on to the old crop in anticipation of an increase in prices.
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