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Indian pepper exports during April- December 2016 plummeted by 40 per cent while imports continued to increase.
According to Spices Board sources, India shipped out 14,100 tonnes valued at ₹903.38 crore during the first nine months of the current fiscal, against 23,450 tonnes valued at ₹1,438.15 crore in the corresponding period last financial year. This translates into a drop of 40 per cent in quantity and 37 per cent in value, the sources said.
Total imports in 2015-16, according to the sources, stood at 19,365 tonnes valued at ₹1,162.96 crore.
Imports during April-February 2016-17 were 15,650 tonnes via Kochi port alone; at the national level, it was estimated to be around 18,500 tonnes, Chamber sources here said.
“The main reason for the fall in exports is that prices in India are ruling much above pepper from other origins; as a result, many buyers of Malabar pepper have switched over to Indonesia and Vietnam. Consequently, we have lost many of our export markets and it has now become difficult for the exporters to regain the lost market from our competitors,”Kishor Shamji, an exporter told Business Line.
He attributed the high prices in India to strong domestic demand without a corresponding growth in production.
Much of the pepper imports iin 2016 were from Vietnam, trade sources said.
They said that of lat, around 90 per cent of Indian pepper exports are a re-export of imported pepper after value additions such as extraction, grinding and sterilisation.
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