The pepper market is facing a serious supply crunch thereby pushing the prices of the commodity further. The world’s largest producer, Vietnam, has shipped majority of its crop and stockists in India and Vietnam are reluctant to release further stock in the market. Thus, making the global stock position is weak.
Reports from Vietnam suggest that 85,000 tonnes of this season’s crop has already been exported and the remaining stock would be in the range of 30,000-35,000 tonnes. There has been a surge in demand due to Ramadan and the winter season, but the rather weak stock position may put pressure on prices of the commodity.
According to reports, there is a good demand from West Asia for the Ramadan season. India and Vietnam now quote $4,100 a tonne and Brazil offers $4,075-4,100 a tonne. The demand increased 65 per cent in Vietnam, 35 per cent in India and almost 30 per cent in Brazil since March.
As prices in Vietnam have moved up drastically, Brazil is looking more attractive. It is estimated that the new crop from Brasil is between 2,000-3,000 tonnes for September-Decemebr shipments. Indonesia, remains key in the Asta market thanks to their lowest price of $3,900-3,950 a tonne.
The ongoing harvesting is likely to be completed there by the first week of August as the month-long Ramadan starts by the second week of August. Around 20-30 per cent of harvesting is over there.
The local demand in India will be on a rise in coming weeks thanks to festivals and winter season. So across the globe growers hitch their hopes on ‘thin’ stocks. Local growers anticipate a price of Rs 200 a kg, from Rs 176-181 a kg currently.