No riches to farmers from the king of spices

Pepper growers are virtually left in the lurch. For, the prices of pepper, the king of spices, has plummeted drastically this season.

A fortnight ago, a kilogram of pepper was sold at Rs 400. But, suddenly the prices have come down to Rs 300 a kg, shocking the pepper growers who were expecting better prices for their produce following a bumper crop in several areas.

Although there has been a fall in the pepper yield in some villages due to a disease, the overall production has registered a big jump in pepper growing areas in Malnad region.

Pepper is grown as a subsidiary crop in coffee and arecanut plantations and is normally harvested in the first week of March. The pepper price has now sharply declined to Rs 31,000 per quintal from Rs 40,000 per quintal.

According to traders, the prices have come down due to huge arrivals in the market. “Following a bumper crop, there are no takers in the market,” a trader said.

According to traders, major pepper producing nations such as Vietnam and Indonesia too have witnessed a bumper crop this year, leading to huge arrivals.

Vietnam has produced 55,000 tonnes of pepper in 2012-13 and will export 83 per cent of it. In the last two weeks, the price of pepper has been continously falling from
Rs 42,650 to Rs 30,000 per quintal.

A meeting held at the International Pepper Centre in Colombo last week expressed concern over the low prices, they said. The total global production in 2012-13 is 3.27 lakh tonnes.

As many as 3.36 lakh tonnes — including the surplus production of the previous year— is available for export.

This surplus could have led to fall in prices, traders explained. In India, the production for the current year is expected to be 43,000 tonnes and of this 17,500 tonnes will be exported, they said.