Pepper prices fall sharply; Traders hold drop to imports and increased supply

Mattancherry: Pepper prices go down again with a reduction of Rs 19 per kilogram in the last three days. Last week, the price had gone down by Rs 10 per kilogram. Ungarbled pepper was priced at Rs 556 per kg on Wednesday while garbled pepper was at Rs 576. 

The increase in supply from Idukki and the fall in demand in the market has led to the decrease in prices. Pepper is also coming in from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Harvesting season has begun in Wayanad and traders say that prices are likely to fall further as more goods come into the market. 

Pepper is being imported from other countries like Vietnam into the north Indian market. In the international market, the price of Indian pepper is 7400 dollar per ton. However, pepper from other countries are available for half this price in the market. Brazilian pepper is priced at 3800 dollars while Vietnam pepper can be bought for 3950 dollars.

Pepper is now arriving from Madagascar as well at 3300 dollars per ton. A total of 415 tons of pepper was imported to India from other countries in December.  502 tons were imported from Vietnam alone. Kishore Shyamji Kuruva, Coordinator, Indian pepper and spice growers said that this uncontrolled import was one of the main reasons for the fall in prices.