India’s black pepper exports have fallen during April-October period of current financial year according to the latest estimates of the Spices Board. A drop of 35.5 per cent had been registered in volume during the period as total export came down to 14,750 tonnes from 22,800 tonnes in the same period of 2007-08. The export earnings registered a drop of 25.5 per cent at Rs 246.70 crore against Rs 330.37 crore in the same period last year.
The board said that the low inventory in major markets due to economic recession is reported to be the major reason for the decline in exports. Although, all the spices exports grabbed a 7 per cent increase in volume and 14 per cent in value terms, the pepper exports had a sharp decline.
Leading Kochi bound exporters also explained the slowdown in the US and European markets as the major reason for the set back. Since the focused markets of other spices are the Gulf region and Japan, the major destinations of pepper are Europe and the US. It has been noticed since the last 7 months that pepper was one among the few spices that recorded a continuous drop in all the months of current financial year.
The current economic turmoil has fueled the low off-take by the importing nations especially the US, though all the major importers have been fully covered till the end of this year. But the country has slowed down their buying from all major origins except Indonesia. The US buying in the first nine months of the current year has dropped 7 per cent at 36,305 tonnes against 39,061 tonnes in the same period of 2007.
The US import Malabar grade pepper (Indian origin) had dropped 30 per cent in January-September period at 7,368 tonnes against 10,825 tonnes in the same period of last year.