The domestic black pepper market is seeing lower prices and subdued demand, especially in the North Indian consuming centres, which the growers attribute to a surge in illegal imports.

Major pepper consuming markets such as Patna, Ranchi, Lucknow, Varanasi, Indore, Delhi etc have been flooded with Vietnamese pepper imported illegally as Sri Lankan produce through the borders of Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh, said Kishore Shamji, Proprietor, Kishor Spices. He alleged that some traders in these regions are indulging in illegal imports basically to evade payment of duties as well as GST.

There was a drop of ₹15/kg between December 31 to January 10 and today prices are hovering at ₹351/kg for un-garbled and ₹371/kg for garbled (close to $5,700). The import price for Vietnam pepper is $2,800, Sri Lanka” $3,800 and Brazil: $2,000.

The emerging situation and low arrivals led to tight supply in the market, even as the 2019 season has been delayed for more than 60 days due to climate vagaries, floods, land slides, and strong winds that damaged pepper spikes and wines.

As natural disasters spell doom on mature berries, the calculations of a bumper crop of 70,000-90,000 tonnes went awry, forcing a downward revision of the crop estimate. This has considerably delayed the pepper harvest, he said.

Normally, the months of September and October are considered as the time for harvest of immature green berries, used by the dehydrated green pepper industry as well as for green pepper in brine. Arrivals would be in good quantities.

During this period, the industry used to make commitments for forward contracts with buyers to meet the Christmas and New Year demand.

However, low availability and undue delays in harvesting even green pepper immature berries had affected the time-bound commitments of the industry for immature green pepper exports, he said.

As the inflow of illegal imported pepper started disturbing the domestic growers, Shamji reiterated the growers’ request for all-out efforts to curb this menace in the wake of commencement of pepper season in India.

The arrival of green pepper and matured berries has started in several southern districts of Kerala in a modest way, amidst limited availability of new pepper and dwindling carry-forward stocks of the old crop.

KK Vishwanath, Coordinator of the Black Pepper Growers Organisation, said that international prices are also dwindling due to a glut.

The Kerala harvest is already on and in the next 2-3 months, the Karnataka crop will arrive, leading to a surplus in stocks. However, some small growers are still holding on to their stocks in anticipation of a price rise.

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