About Black Pepper
Black Pepper
is one of the most important spices grown and exported from India.
Like other spices, it too has great domestic demand so quantity left for
export is limited. It is mainly used as spice and its consumption
is also known to have many health benefits. Though there are also white
pepper and green pepper, black one is the most traded one, all being produced
from the same fruit. Peppers are used in whole as well as grounded form
all over the world.
In India,
the harvesting period is Nov-March with South India growing almost all
the pepper production led by the state of Kerala followed by
Karnataka and Tamilnadu. India, Vietnam, Brazil, Thailand, China, Madagascar,
Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia are the major producers and exporters
of pepper with Vietnam leading the both world production as well
world exports chart. The harvesting season in Vietnam is March-May while
in Indonesia it is July-Oct and Brazil August-Oct whereas in Malaysia
it is May-Aug.
India's main export
is of Malabar grade black pepper. The country itself is a very big
consumer of spices so the quantity available for export is limited
as compared to its competitors. U.S., Italy, Germany, Canada among other
countries are big importers of Indian pepper due to its quality which
is why it rules at the premium in International market. India also exports
value added products like pepper oil, pepper oleoresins, green pepper
in brine, dehydrated green pepper etc.
The prices
of pepper are highly volatile like other spices as India itself
is a very big consumer of it so if any production fluctuation occurs
it affects it hard. Also the world production and demand plays the major
role in pepper prices. The stockists
and speculators also play a major role in its prices. The availablity
of pepper futures have given the exporters an opportunity to hedge their
risks.
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