The Hindu Business Line : Brazil claims its black pepper to be of good quality

Brazil has claimed that its black pepper was of best quality and the decline in its imports by the US this year was not because of the presence of Salmonella, for which all other origins on more occasions were detained by the US FDA.

The Brazilian Pepper Trade Board, rejecting the reports as untrue, on Friday quoting the US FDA detention records said Brazil had the best quality rating during the last 12 months with "only one detention for Salmonella, compared to 48 detentions for India's origin, Vietnam two and Indonesia three. As far as India is concerned some of the detentions were even for treated products - ground and repacked."

The reaction from Brazil was in response to the reports attributing bad quality of the Brazilian Pepper as a possible reason for the US to stop the purchases from Brazil.

It said that a Trade Board team on verifying the FDA detention records from Aug 2007 found that the allegations were not true.

Quality Constraints

Meanwhile, Indian exporters' sources told Business Line that Black pepper consignments are shipped out to the US and other destinations only after conducting the quality testing at the US FDA-approved laboratories of the Export Inspection Agency/at the processors' approved testing facilities and each consignment is accompanied by the clearance in Form A issued by the EIA.

Where as, the pepper imported from Brazil into the US is sterilised by the importers under an undertaking given by them to the FDA and therefore not directly checked by the Administration, they said. According to the BPTB, the US appears to have this year switched over from all other origins to Lampong.

Dull market

"While Brazil, Vietnam, and last year's bigger supplier - India - dropped dramatically, the arrivals from Indonesia almost matched the whole 2007 arrivals from this origin; 12,895 million tonnes (mt) during the first semester 2008 against 14,203 mt the whole 12 months in 2007." Therefore, the decline in imports into the US was not because of the Salmonella presence, the BPTB said.

Overall American market seems to be well covered at least until September, it claimed. The total imports during January - June were some five per cent higher than the imports in the same period in 2007 and 2006.

The BPTB said the international purchases market continued remain dull because of the summer holidays and the on going Olympics in Beijing. "So we do believe that market may warm-up from September onwards."

Vietnam Crop

On the remaining stocks with the different origins, it said Vietnam said to have already shipped out most of its crop and considering domestic consumption requirements and other commitments it may be having a stock of around 10,000-12,000 tonnes. Brazil may have around 35,000 tonnes.

Its "crop is much spread - it starts in July, peaks in Sep - Oct, but ends by December which averages some 5,000-6,000 a month." Indonesian stock is estimated at between 15,000 and 20,000, and of this already 6,000 tonnes black pepper is said to have already been committed to the US.

"If by one side this may reduce stock availability, by the other hand it reduces also the demand," the Board said. Indian production in 2007-08 is estimated at 50,000 tonnes and that in 2008-09 is also estimated to be somewhere at this level due to the erratic climatic conditions prevailed in the major growing state, Kerala.

The country's domestic consumption is estimated at above50,000 tonnes necessitating imports, official sources told Business Line.

Global scenario

According to IPC estimates, world pepper output in 2007-08 is 2.71 lakh tonnes registering a drop of 6.6 per cent from 2.89 lakh tonnes last year. The global consumption, according to trade, is growing at 3.46 per cent a year. The major importer, the US, with around 23 per cent of total world imports, is said to have an annual growth of around 4.6 per cent.

As to prices, "Brazil presently is the cheapest origin with $3,000 a tonne fob for ASTA. However, it is not a stable position because the sentiment is bullish and it is almost sure that if the market will become more active these prices will rise immediately."