India has imported 9,576 tonnes of pepper from Vietnam during January-August 2014 and became the fourth major importer from that country. In April, alone 2,341 tonnes of pepper have been imported into India, market sources told Business Line . Meanwhile, panic selling by Karnataka dealers of low bulk density material has pushed the spot prices further down on Friday.

Apart from this, the material is getting into Wayanad (Kerala) where the dealers were mixing it with local material and was offering as 550 GL pepper at ₹650-660 a kg, they said. On the spot, six tonnes of pepper arrived and that were traded. Spot prices fell by ₹500 a quintal to ₹66,000 (ungarbled) and ₹69,000 (garbled). Export prices slipped further to $11,700 a tonne (cf) for Europe and $11,950 for the US.