DAP tells government to help pepper farmers hit by low prices

KUCHING: The state government is urged to alleviate the suffering of pepper planters in the state due to the drastic drop in price of the commodity.

DAP Serian branch chairman Edward Andrew Luak said Sarawakian pepper planters are mostly affected since the state is the producer of 95 percent of the country’s pepper.

He believed there are 65,000 pepper planters in Sarawak, based on an estimated pepper planted area of 13,000 hectares and if each farmer plants pepper on average farm size of 0.2 hectares.

“The price of both white and black pepper has dropped by more than 30 per cent since late 2016. White pepper price dropped from about RM47,000 per tonne in July 2016 to around RM30,000 in December 2016. During the same period black pepper dropped from RM27,000 per tonne to RM18,000. The prices are still sliding down,” he said.

He explained that pepper planters suffer a double blow when they turn to pepper dealers each time they could not sell the commodity at the Pepper Marketing Board office.

He said these pepper dealers, to protect their interest, have to quote a much lower price as pepper prices are very volatile. Their prices are far too low compared to the Board’s price.

“There must be some measures taken to avoid unfair manipulation by dealers.

“While the official portal of Pepper Marketing Board indicated a price of around RM30,000 per tonne for white pepper, a dealer in Serian Town displayed a price of RM18.80 to RM20.00 per kg for white pepper, depending on the grade.

“The Board’s published price for black pepper is about RM20,000 per tonne but dealers are displaying prices of RM7.00 to RM10.30 per kg. As compared to the Pepper Marketing Board price, the price by the dealers is lower by more than 30 percent for white pepper and close to 50 percent for black pepper,” he alleged.

He also claimed the Pepper Marketing Board has not been of much help, by rejecting pepper from the planters causing them to dispose of the commodity at ‘lelong’ (cheap) prices.

“The interests of pepper dealers, especially rural dealers, need to be taken into account too. They have been given licence to purchase pepper from the growers in villages for the convenience of growers. They face big losses when the board rejected their pepper.

“It is hoped that the government, especially the Sarawak government, in view of the fact that most of those affected are Sarawakians, take measures to relieve these pepper growers and dealers of their burden,” he said.