A steep fall in the price of pepper in the harvest season and low production owing to climate vagaries are the major concerns of pepper growers in Kerala and Karnataka, which form a major pepper growing region in the country.
The spot price for pepper in Kerala’s Wayanad market on Friday was ₹325 a kg compared with ₹375 a kg a few weeks ago. It was around ₹495-₹500 a kg in the corresponding period last year.
‘Cheaper pepper from Vietnam continues to flood the market through Sri Lanka, and, aided by a low-duty structure under the ASEAN (Association of South-East Nations) trade agreement, SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area) and ISFTA (Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement) it was the major reason for the declining price of the produce,” M.C. Abdu of Ideal Spices, a pepper dealer in Wayanad, said.
‘Though the Commerce Ministry had imposed a minimum import price (MIP) of ₹500 per kg on pepper last year to protect domestic pepper farmers, it is yet to make any positive impact,” Kishore Shamji, coordinator, Cochin chapter of the Indian Pepper and Spice Traders, Farmers, Producers and Planters Consortium (IPSTPC), told The Hindu .
The pepper imported from Sri Lanka by Nepal and Bhutan through the Kolkata sea port also flows into the Indian market by road, Mr. Shamji added. More than 20,000 tons of smuggled pepper reached the country from January 2018 to October 2018, he added.
“Smuggled pepper from Vietnam and Sri Lanka is available in consuming centres across the country at ₹325 a kg,” he said.
“Rising imports and illegal entry of the produce had taken their toll on the average pepper price, which dropped from a high of ₹720 a kg kg to ₹325 a kg over the last 19 months,” he said.
Domestic production is likely to drop below 50,000 tonnes against a consumption of 65,000 tonnes.
“This mismatch has been taken advantage of by Sri Lankan exporters by importing Vietnam pepper with certificate of origin from Sri Lanka, thus snatching away the benefit of Indian pepper farmers,” Mr. Shamji said.
Ministry action urged
The IPSTPC had urged the Commerce Ministry several times to remove black pepper from the SAFTA and ISFTA import lists in order to aid domestic growers, but it was yet to be considered, he said.
Torrential rain a few months ago in pepper-growing areas of Kerala and Karnataka caused a sharp decline in crop production.
“High moisture content owing to the rains has triggered fungal diseases like quick wilt and soft wilt. The diseases massively destroyed the vines in our area,” Muthanna, a farmer at Kutta in Coorg district of Karnataka said. Hence the production may fall 45-50% this season, he added.
