Demand and price of black pepper expected to improve during festive season
31-Aug-2024 12:42 PM
New Delhi. Due to increasing imports from abroad and especially from Sri Lanka, the domestic market price of black pepper has been under pressure for the last few weeks, but it is expected to increase in the coming weeks.
Actually, due to the presence of a good stock of imported black pepper in the major user areas and the continuation of monsoon rains, the business in the producing markets of South India weakened. Along with this, importers also sold it in large quantities at relatively low prices. This started affecting the market.
According to the available data, the price of black pepper in the terminal market of Kochi during the month of August fell by Rs 1400 per quintal, with the garbled category coming to Rs 66,600 per quintal and the ungarbled variety to Rs 64,600 per quintal.
On an average, 20-25 tonnes of black pepper is arriving daily in this market. In this, the quantity of goods imported from abroad is more and the quantity of domestic production is very less.
Producers were expecting that the price of black pepper would rise to Rs 70,000 per quintal but heavy selling by importers spoiled the market equation.
During the month of July, a total of 5085 tonnes of black pepper was imported in the country. Out of this, the contribution of goods imported from Sri Lanka alone was about 4400 tonnes. The remaining black pepper was imported from other countries including Vietnam.
Imported goods are being sold quickly. The supply and availability of imported goods has increased in consumption centers. However, its quality is said to be very weak and the moisture content in it is also high.
It is understood that to meet the increasing demand during the festive season, Disawari traders can now show good interest in buying black pepper in production centers, due to which some increase in prices is expected there.
Importers have sold most of their stock, while there is still stock of indigenous black pepper in Kerala and Karnataka. It will be necessary to see how much of it was imported from abroad in the month of August.