Spice Board recommends ban on low-quality pepper imports

A few months after cheap pepper imports from Vietnam came under the scanner of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for suspected contamination, the Spice Board has recommended a ban on the imports over quality concerns.

The development comes at a time when cheap imports have brought down the pepper price to ~400 a kg, from ~650 a kg about a year ago.

A B Rema Shree, director (research and development), Spice Board, said the board had recommended a ban on pepper imported from Vietnam as its quality had been a major concern. “It’s a policy decision, so the government needs to take a final decision,” the official said on the sidelines of UPASI Annual Conference.

Earlier, the FSSAI instructed various nodal agencies and its offices across the country to check pepper imports into the country. The authority suspected that pepper coming in from Vietnam, through Sri Lanka, might be contaminated. Pepper has been a key intercrop for coffee growers.

Three months ago, the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) launched trading in Malabar Garbled Black Pepper futures contract. It was expected this would bring some stability in prices, but it did not help as cheap imports were a major problem, say growers. Pepper prices dropped to ~400 a kg on Wednesday from ~450 a kg two months ago and ~600-650 a kg a year ago. Imported pepper was available at ~350 a kg.

Anuj Gupta , head-research (commodities and currencies) at Angel Broking, said Indian black pepper prices on futures exchange continued to shrink with rising imports from Vietnam routed through Sri Lanka. The October futures for delivery in the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) fell nearly 6.2 per cent from last week’s high to ~47,240 a quintal on Tuesday.

Rohan Colaco, former executive committee member at Karnataka Planters Association and a leading planter, said it was clear that imports were hurting local pepper prices.

As pepper was an income balancer due to hard times in coffee plantation, the price drop had made survival of growers difficult, he added.

According to market sources, Vietnam exported 3,000 tonnes of pepper to Sri Lanka in July, and another 2,000 tonnes in August. Most of this has come to India.