Pepper prices rise 15% amid lockdown on hope of healthy post-monsoon sales

Farmers hold on to stocks due to great demand for high-quality Indian produce

Pepper prices have turned buoyant again rising by as much as 15 per cent in India to Rs 325 per kg from Rs 285 earlier. 

Rohan Colaco, a planter from Karnataka and a member of Karnataka Planters Association, said that pepper prices had been sliding prior to the lockdown. The spice was trading at around Rs 285 a kg and was expected to go down to Rs 260.

Some farmers who had finished harvesting had sold in panic. Also there was unripe pepper wine harvest and selling this year. After the lockdown, the prices opened at Rs 305.

"It is expected that there