Increased arrivals took their toll on pepper prices in Kochi, which were down by ₹1 per kg on Monday. Ungarbled varieties were quoted at ₹304 per kg on an off-take of 43 tonnes.

According to Kishore Shamji, there was more availability both from domestically produced commodity and imported stuff. End users are reported to have covered the entire quantity. A stronger rupee against dollar seems to have attraction for importers.

Pepper farmers in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have started liquidating their stock to meet their educational funding requirements. They are pinning hopes on the ensuing festival season to perk up demand, he said.

However, there are apprehensions in the market on the imports of Sri Lankan pepper at MIP, flouting rules in this regard. Likewise, imports for extractions with 6 per cent piperine content are also reported to have flouted rules. The farming community alleged that the samples reaching Spices Board from imported lots are not the actual samples.

Lower-grade pepper like pepper husks are not in demand in the market because of the availability of spent pepper of duty free imports. The farming community is also worried over the slippage of imported pepper by EOU into the domestic market, he said.

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